Here is what to expect in the weeks and months to come.
DOES TRUMP FACE A DEADLINE TO LEAVE OFFICE?
Yes. The US presidential election is not formally over. Electors - party loyalists who typically pledge to support the candidate who gets the most votes in their state - will convene on Dec 14 to formally cast their votes.
The newly seated Congress accepts the results from the Electoral College on Jan 6. If Biden wins the Electoral College vote, as expected, he will be sworn in at noon on Jan 20 - a date set in the Constitution.
CAN BIDEN TRANSITION INTO POWER OVER TRUMP'S OBJECTIONS?
Yes. Trump has only so much power to slow Biden's transition.
A law called the Presidential Transition Act of 1963 makes career civil servants vital to the transfer of power. They face deadlines for providing data and access to incoming officials.
Under the law, the transition process will shift into high gear once a federal agency called the US General Services Administration (GSA), which manages federal buildings, names an apparent winner of the election. At that point, the incoming president's team can obtain briefing books, tap into funds, and send representatives to visit government agencies.
On Sunday (Nov 8), experts in transitions sent a letter to the GSA's administrator, Emily Murphy, urging her to recognise Biden as the winner.
"While there will be legal disputes requiring adjudication, the outcome is sufficiently clear that the transition process must now begin," the letter from the Center for Presidential Transition said.
The GSA said in a statement on Saturday it "ascertains the apparent successful candidate once a winner is clear based on the process laid out in the Constitution".
Political scientists told Reuters they are optimistic about the resilience of this legal framework.
Despite the animosity between Trump and Biden on the campaign trail, the Trump administration earlier this year complied with statutory requirements for providing federal office space and government resources to the Biden campaign.
Government officials take an oath to uphold the US Constitution. This oath would require recognising Biden as the incoming president if he wins the Electoral College, regardless of what Trump says, said Robert Chesney, a professor of national security law at the University of Texas.
"I find it very hard to believe the military, the Secret Service, the FBI, or any other relevant part of the bureaucracy would go along with Trump if the Electoral College or a court says otherwise," said Chesney.
WOULD THE MILITARY KICK TRUMP OUT IF HE REFUSES TO LEAVE?
Two US army veterans raised the possibility of the military forcefully removing Trump in an "open letter" to the top US general, Mark Milley, in August.
"If Donald Trump refuses to leave office at the expiration of his constitutional term, the United States military must remove him by force, and you must give that order," stated the letter, published in Defense One and written by John Nagl, a retired Army officer, and Paul Yingling, a retired US Army lieutenant colonel.
But others have said such a move would be better left to the US Secret Service, citing a bedrock US legal principle that military personnel should stay out of domestic law enforcement matters.
"We have constitutional processes for dealing with this, and the military is nowhere in that equation," said Kori Schake, a director of foreign and defense policy at the American Enterprise Institute.
If Trump truly refused to leave the White House, on Jan 20 he would become a "trespasser", Chesney said.
"The Secret Service would come and escort him out," he said.
TOKYO: As Asia comes to terms with the reality of a Joe Biden administration, relief and hopes of economic and environmental revival jostle with needling anxiety and fears of inattention.
From security to trade to climate change, a powerful US reach extends to nearly every corner of the Asia-Pacific. In his four years in office, President Donald Trump shook the foundations of US relations here as he courted traditional rivals and attacked allies with both frequency and relish.
Now, as Biden looks to settle tumultuous domestic issues, there’s widespread worry that Asia will end up as an afterthought. Allies will go untended. Rivals - and especially China, that immense US competitor for regional supremacy - will do as they like.
In the wake of perhaps the most contentious presidency in recent US history, here's a look at how its aftermath - a Biden White House - will play out in one of the world’s most important and volatile regions:
SOUTHEAST ASIA
Some countries in the region, such as Malaysia, have pivoted toward China because of heavy investment and a focus on economic recovery, and “it will take time for the US to rebuild trust”, said Bridget Welsh, honorary research associate at the University of Nottingham in Malaysia. "US power will never be what it was."
Biden is also likely to be more wary in his dealings with strongman leaders like the Philippines’ Rodrigo Duterte, Thailand's Prayut Chan-o-cha and Cambodia's Hun Sen, said Richard Heydarian, an analyst in the Philippines.
“A more cautious Biden could also mean a degree of stability in relations with tricky allies and partners in Southeast Asia and the region,” he said. “We are going to see American leadership, but much more in conjunction with regional players and powers, including Japan, Australia, India, European powers” and Southeast Asia.
Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in his congratulatory letter to Biden on Sunday said "many countries" are looking forward to the US' leadership in overcoming significant global challenges, "especially the immediate crisis brought by the COVID-19 pandemic".
Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un went from threats of war to three unprecedented sit-downs, which, though high-profile media events, did nothing to rid the North of its banned nuclear-tipped long-range missiles.
Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump shake hands during a meeting in 2019 on the south side of the Military Demarcation Line that divides North and South Korea AFP/Brendan Smialowski
Kim must now adjust to a man his propaganda services once condemned as a “rabid dog” that “must be beaten to death”.
Biden, for his part, has called Kim a “butcher” and “thug”, and said Trump had gifted a dictator with legitimacy with “three made-for-TV summits” that produced no disarmament progress.
Biden has endorsed a slower approach built from working-level meetings and said he would be willing to tighten sanctions on the North until it takes concrete denuclearization steps.
North Korea, which has yet to show any willingness to fully deal away a nuclear arsenal that Kim may see as his strongest guarantee of survival, prefers a summit-driven process that gives it a better chance of pocketing instant concessions that would otherwise be rejected by lower-level diplomats.
For South Korea, the new president will likely demonstrate more respect toward its treaty ally than Trump, who unilaterally downsized joint military training and constantly complained about the cost of the 28,500 US troops stationed in the South to defend against North Korea.
President Moon Jae-in congratulated Biden on Monday and said South Korea will ensure there is no gap in the alliance with the US and the process of building peace on the Korean peninsula.
Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha was in Washington for talks with her American counterpart on a visit now overshadowed by Biden’s projected victory.
"From the public remarks made by several of Biden's aides, I don't believe it intends to return to the strategic patience of the past," Kang said, according to Yonhap news agency.
"It should be made based on various progress and achievements made the past three years."
Yonhap said Kang would meet Biden’s foreign affairs and security members and discuss cooperation, without elaborating.
CHINA
The two nations are inexorably entwined, economically and politically, even as the US military presence in the Pacific chafes against China’s expanded effort to have its way in what it sees as its natural sphere of influence.
Under Trump, the two rivals engaged in a trade war, and a lively exchange of verbal hostilities. A Biden administration could have a calming effect on those frayed ties, according to Alexander Huang, a strategic studies professor at Tamkang University in Taipei and a former Taiwanese national security official.
“I’d expect Biden to return to the more moderate, less confrontational approach of the Obama era toward China-US relations,” he said.
Greater outreach to China could prompt Washington to play down its support for Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory, without necessarily reducing US commitment to ensure the island can defend itself against Chinese threats, Huang said.
Retired chemical engineer Tang Ruiguo echoed a view shared by many in China of an unstoppable US decline from global superpower status. “No matter who is elected, I feel the United States may go into turmoil and unrest and its development will be affected,” Tang said.
The resignation this year of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe ended one of Trump’s few close, productive relationships with a foreign leader.
There’s hope in Tokyo that Biden’s more progressive ecological policies will help Japanese green companies and that he will take a hard line on China, with which Japan is in constant competition.
But there’s also worry.
Under Biden, “America cannot afford to take care of other countries, and it has to prioritise its own reconstruction,” said Hiro Aida, Kansai University professor of modern US politics and history.
As Biden is consumed with his nation’s many domestic troubles, from racial unrest to worries about the economy, healthcare and the coronavirus, Japan could be left alone as China pursues its territorial ambitions and North Korea expands its nuclear efforts, according to Peter Tasker, a Tokyo-based analyst with Arcus Research.
Not much will change with the host of security and defence ties shared by India and the United States. But a Biden administration could mean a much closer look at India’s spotty recent human rights and religious freedom records, both of which were largely ignored by Trump.
Biden is also expected to be more critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu-nationalistic policies, which critics say oppress India’s minorities, according to Michael Kugelman, deputy director of the Asia Program at the Washington-based Wilson Center.
US Election View From Asia
The countries will work more closely to counterbalance China, a shared rival, Kugelman said. A Biden White House won’t “risk antagonizing a country that is widely viewed in Washington as America’s best strategic bet in South Asia,” he said.
AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND
The conservative Australian prime minister who was in power when Trump was elected, Malcolm Turnbull, may have spoken for many when he tweeted congratulations to Biden: “What a relief that you won.”
There’s hope that Biden will do better than the Trump administration, which granted Australian manufacturers exemptions from US steel and aluminum tariffs in 2018 before reportedly having a change of heart a year later.
For New Zealand, there are aspirations to sell more milk and beef under a US administration that’s more open to free trade.
New Zealand and other Pacific nations also hope that Biden might help ease tensions with China.
New Zealand has found itself stuck between the two superpowers, relying on China as its biggest trading partner while maintaining traditional defense and intelligence ties with the United States.
BEIJING: China said on Monday (Nov 9) it has taken note of Joe Biden's declaration of victory in the US presidential election but is holding off on sending any message of congratulations.
Foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said the result of the election would be determined under US laws and procedures and that China would follow international practices in extending its sentiments.
China has had a fractious relationship with President Donald Trump, characterised by growing friction over trade, technology and competition for influence in Asia and the world.
Analysts say Biden will likely return ties to a less contentious state, although Beijing has stuck throughout the election to a position of not commenting directly on what it says is an internal American political issue.
"I noticed that Mr Biden has declared victory of the election," Wang told reporters at a daily briefing. "We understand that the presidential election result will be determined following US laws and procedures."
China will "follow the international practices" regarding a statement on the result, Wang said.
China is one of only a small number of major nations that have yet to issue statements on the election, in which Democrat Biden emerged the winner over Republican incumbent Trump after days of ballot counting. Trump has yet to concede and is challenging counting in several districts.
China's view aligns both with its stated policy of non-intervention in other countries' domestic political affairs and its desire to hedge its bets with whichever party ends up in office.
Without commenting on an election winner, Wang said Beijing would "always maintain that China and the US should strengthen dialogue and community", expand cooperation and "manage and control differences based on mutual respect".
TAIPEI: Taiwan's top China policy maker on Monday (Nov 9) sought to reassure nervous lawmakers that Democrat Joe Biden will continue US support for the Chinese-claimed island, which has benefited from strong backing by the outgoing administration of Donald Trump.
Tensions over democratic Taiwan have escalated dramatically since Republican Trump took office four years ago. China was infuriated first by Trump's unprecedented call with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen shortly after he won election, followed by increased US arms sales and two visits to Taipei by top US officials in recent months.
While that made Trump a popular figure with the public in Taiwan, China responded by increasing military drills near Taiwan, including flying fighter jets over the sensitive mid line of the Taiwan Strait, escalating fears of conflict.
In Taiwan's parliament on Monday, several legislators expressed concerns about a Taiwan policy shift under a Biden administration, with some describing Biden as "China-friendly", and others pointing to Biden's opposition to a Bill to strengthen Taiwan's security in 1999.
Huang Shih-chieh, from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, said their main concern was whether US support for Taiwan would change.
"Our biggest worry is that with a Biden presidency he may adjust his policy," Huang said.
But Chen Ming-tong, who heads Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council, repeatedly reassured lawmakers a fundamental change in US support for Taiwan was unlikely.
"There's no need to worry about a change of ownership in the White House," he said. "Although there might be some changes in Biden's tactics towards China, there will be no change in its China strategy."
Copies of Taiwanese daily newspaper Liberty Times, with its frontpage on the inauguration of US President Donald Trump, are seen a printing house in Taipei, Taiwan, Jan 21, 2017. (File photo: REUTERS/Tyrone Siu)
Chen noted it was former President Barack Obama, under whom Biden served as vice president, who pushed the "pivot" back to Asia to challenge a rising China, and that Biden was unlikely to challenge the current geopolitical structure of the US-China standoff.
The United States and Taiwan share the same values, Chen said.
"Looking at (Biden's) comments and support for Taiwan in the past, we can trust him to continue to reinforce the Taiwan-US relationship."
Chen said while Biden was "generally viewed as China-friendly" he had also made a lot of criticism about China.
"Some people only see one side of the story and overlook another."
Taiwan officials have long worried that Trump was just using the island as a pawn to put pressure on China.
So Biden being in the White House may not be a bad thing for Taiwan, said Lai Shyh-bao, a lawmaker for the main opposition party, the Kuomintang, which traditionally favours close ties with China.
"With a Biden administration I think tensions in the Taiwan Strait will be lowered, because he will not think of Taiwan as a big chess piece, like Trump always did," he said.
WASHINGTON: In his unsuccessful campaign for re-election, President Donald Trump repeatedly warned that a victory for Joe Biden would be a win for China and that Beijing would "own America".
Despite that rhetoric, there is little to suggest Beijing will find Biden a soft alternative to Trump, who dramatically shifted the US narrative to confront the world’s second-largest economy in his final year in power.
Even before Trump took office, the last Democratic administration of President Barack Obama and then Vice President Biden had significantly hardened its attitude towards China.
After initial efforts to engage Beijing, Trump's administration took this further, pushing back forcefully against China's efforts to spread its influence globally, earning some grudging praise from Biden advisers despite a bitterly fought election campaign.
Chinese state media struck an optimistic tone on Monday (Nov 9) in editorials reacting to Biden's election win, saying relations could be restored to a state of greater predictability and could start with trade.
While acknowledging the United States was unlikely to ease pressure on China on issues such as Xinjiang and Hong Kong, state-backed newspaper Global Times said Beijing should work to communicate with the Biden team as thoroughly as it can.
TOUGH APPROACH TO CONTINUE
Biden has not laid out a detailed China strategy, but all indications are he will continue the tough approach to Beijing.
Diplomats, analysts and former officials who advised the Biden campaign do though expect a more measured tone after Trump’s hip-fired threats, and an emphasis on “strategic competition” rather than outright confrontation.
That said, Biden has at times gone even further than the outgoing president in attacking China.
He has referred to Chinese President Xi Jinping as a "thug" and vowed to lead an international campaign to "pressure, isolate and punish China". His campaign has also labelled China’s actions against Muslims in Xinjiang "genocide" – a step further than current policy, with significant implications if that designation is formalised.
"The United States does need to get tough with China," Biden said in an article published in March as the COVID-19 pandemic, which began in the Chinese city of Wuhan, took hold.
"The most effective way to meet that challenge is to build a united front of US allies and partners to confront China's abusive behaviors and human rights violations."
In the same sentence, Biden also wrote of seeking "to cooperate with Beijing on issues where our interests converge, such as climate change, non-proliferation and global health security".
Reconciling those aims will be the key challenge, with the potential to touch off the sort of disputes between hard-liners and pragmatists seen in the Trump administration.
"There are going to be big debates," said a former senior Obama administration official who worked closely with Biden in the past.
"You will have folks in the Biden team who will say China represents a systemic threat to the United States and we have to treat them as such, and there will be pragmatists saying: 'We're in the middle of a pandemic, climate change is accelerating, we have to work with them.'"
When it comes to trade, Biden is seen as unlikely to roll back his predecessor's tariffs on goods from China and elsewhere any time soon.
"I've been told that if you close your eyes, you might not be able to tell the difference" between the Biden and Trump trade agendas, said Nasim Fussell, former Republican trade counsel at the US Senate Finance Committee.
"Biden's not going to be quick to unravel some of these tariffs."
His top economic priority will be to revive an economy slammed by the coronavirus pandemic, so trade agreements will likely take a back seat to stimulus efforts and infrastructure development.
"MORE PREDICTABLE AND STRATEGIC"
Whereas the outgoing administration's tendency has often seemed to be to launch unilateral attacks on Beijing then to browbeat allies and partners into supporting them, Biden will aim to engage allies at the outset and reassert US leadership via international institutions Trump disdained.
Top Biden advisers told Reuters he would immediately consult with key allies before deciding on the future of tariffs on China, seeking “collective leverage” to strengthen his hand.
"A Biden administration’s China policy will be more predictable and strategic," said Wendy Cutler, a former US diplomat and trade negotiator.
"The days of advisers scrambling to implement what they learn through presidential tweets will be in the past. The days of throwing one sanction after another at the wall and seeing what sticks without a strategic framework will be over as well."
While analysts say much of the detail of future China policy will depend on who Biden names to key positions, the focus on rebuilding bruised alliances will be a fundamental tenet.
Contenders for top positions and Biden himself stress that to work, the approach must be underpinned by domestic investment to ensure a US competitive edge over China in key technologies such as quantum computing, artificial intelligence and 5G.
Michele Flournoy, a hawkish contender for defense secretary, has warned that the economic damage caused by the pandemic mean future defence budgets will be flattened or worse, while stressing the need for US forces to be able and willing to carry through on any deterrent threat.
"If the US military had the capability to credibly threaten to sink all of China’s military vessels, submarines, and merchant ships in the South China Sea within 72 hours, Chinese leaders might think twice before, say, launching a blockade or invasion of Taiwan," she wrote in the June edition of Foreign Affairs.
Kurt Campbell, the top US diplomat for East Asia in the first Obama administration, told London's Policy Exchange think tank on Oct 28 Washington faced "a period of deep strategic competition" with China and it was vital to have a united approach at home to dispel the notion that America was in a "hurtling decline".
"We have to convince other countries we have our own house in order, which we do not right now," he said. "Some degree of bipartisanship as we think about China and Asia is going to be essential ... Without it, we will, in all likelihood, fail."
SYDNEY: Australia would welcome President-elect Joe Biden restoring the United States to the Paris climate accord, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Monday (Nov 9), speaking as he faced renewed pressure himself to boost efforts to cut Australia's carbon emissions.
"We would be welcoming the United States back into the Paris Agreement, somewhere we've always been," Morrison told reporters, saying a US return to other global organisations like the World Health Organization (WHO) would also be welcome.
The United States formally withdrew from the Paris climate agreement last week, but Biden has promised to rejoin the Paris pact, and also commit to net zero emissions by 2050.
Although Australia state and territory governments have adopted the same 2050 target for net zero emissions, Morrison's federal government has yet to do so. Australia is a major exporter of fossil fuels, particularly coal, and Morrison said many countries have made qualified climate commitments.
On Monday independent lawmaker Zali Steggall introduced a climate Bill to federal parliament seeking a net zero target, saying Australia would be "the pariah of the international community" if it didn't strengthen its climate commitments.
Meanwhile, underlining Australia's frustration with the outgoing President Donald Trump's "America First" policies, Morrison said Australia would welcome the US back to the WHO, and potentially the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact, signed by Australia and 10 other countries in 2018.
On Sunday, Morrison said Australia would also welcome the US engaging with the World Trade Organization, because the way out of a global recession triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic is "market-based trade, fair trade, under the proper rules through the World Trade Organization".
Australian exporters have expressed concern that Chinese importers were warned off buying seven categories of Australian products from Nov 6.
Trade Minister Simon Birmingham said Chinese authorities had denied an "outright ban across a sweeping range of product categories", and products appeared to be moving through Chinese ports at this stage.
