(Bloomberg) -- President Joe Biden said the US did not support independence for Taiwan, after voters there defied China and returned the governing Democratic Progressive Party — which has sought to limit Beijing’s influence — to a third consecutive term.

“We do not support independence,” Biden told reporters Saturday as he departed the White House for Camp David.

Read: Taiwan Elects US-Friendly President, Defying China Warnings

The president’s comment appears intended to assuage concerns in China, which had hoped Taiwan’s current vice president, Lai Ching-te, would not be elected president. Results showed Lai, who has maintained close ties with the US, edging out Hou Yu-ih of the opposition Kuomintang. Hou had pledged to expand trade and diplomacy with China.

China has long claimed that the island of Taiwan is its territory, and President Xi Jinping has advocated for unification and refused to rule out a military intervention. 

The US has traditionally adopted a policy of strategic ambiguity, where it acknowledges China’s historical claims to sovereignty over Taiwan and maintains only unofficial relations with Taipei while pledging defensive assistance. Still, suggestions by Biden that the US would intervene militarily if China were to invade have roiled the relationship between Washington and Beijing.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the election shows the strength of Taiwan’s “robust democratic system” and reiterated that the US “is committed to maintaining cross-Strait peace and stability, and the peaceful resolution of differences, free from coercion and pressure.”

The US will work with Lai and all party leaders in Taiwan “to further our longstanding unofficial relationship” consistent with the US’s one-China policy, he said in a statement.

Also: Ex-US Officials Set to Meet Taiwan Politicians, Testing China

China’s Foreign Ministry hit back at the State Department on Sunday, saying it lodged a diplomatic complaint with the US. Washington should “stop sending any wrong signals to the ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist forces,” the ministry said.

House Speaker Mike Johnson will ask a delegation of House lawmakers to travel to Taipei after Lai’s inauguration in May, he said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Johnson was among several legislators from around the world who congratulated Lai on X. Kira Rudnik of Ukraine and Australian Catherine West also sent good wishes.

--With assistance from Ashleigh Carrington Fields and Cindy Wang.

(Updates with comments from China’s Foreign Ministry.)

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