China congratulated John Kerry on his becoming US Secretary of State, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said Friday.

China is willing to work with the United States to implement the consensus reached between the heads of the two countries for building a cooperative partnership, Hong Lei told a daily press briefing.

He said that during the past four years, Sino-US relations had been generally stable while achieving major progress thanks to the efforts made by leaders, governments and peoples of both countries.

China hopes the two nations can explore the forging of a new type of relationship between big countries, Hong said.

The US Senate on Tuesday approved Democratic Senator John Kerry as the next secretary of state, who is set to replace Hillary Clinton.