Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi telephoned Hillary Clinton to offer his congratulations on her nomination as US secretary of state, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said Tuesday.
The spokesman said Yang expressed satisfaction at the state of relations between the two countries and looked forward to cooperation with Clinton so that ties could develop further, reported dpa.
The spokesman, Liu Jianchao, made no reference to differences between Clinton and outgoing President George W Bush over the US position on human rights in China.
When she was running for the presidency, Clinton spoke out against the president attending the opening ceremony for this year's summer Olympics in Beijing.
Bush's presence at the games served mutual understanding and helped promote the friendship between the two nations, the spokesman said.
US president-elect Barack Obama nominated Clinton as secretary of state on Monday, bringing a former rival on the campaign trail into his cabinet.