Trump ‘tantrums’ signal trouble for China-US relations state media
After president-elect controversially spoke with Taiwan leader, Communist party controlled tabloid warns Beijing must be ready to strike back
China must prepare to strike back against Donald Trumps reckless tantrums, a Communist party controlled tabloid has warned, as a series of snubs to Beijing from the US president-elect continued to generate diplomatic aftershocks.
Trumps decision to hold a protocol-trampling conversation with Taiwans President Tsai Ing-wen last Friday and his subsequent Twitter attacks on China have caused consternation in Beijing.
Chinas official public reaction has so far been measured.
We will not speculate on what motivates President-elect Trump and his team into taking certain moves but we will surely make ourselves clear if what they say concerns China, the foreign ministry spokesperson, Lu Kang told reporters on Monday, adding that the billionaires team had been made fully aware of Chinas solemn attitude.
Speaking in New York, Henry Kissinger, the veteran US diplomat responsible for helping re-establish relations with China in the early 1970s, said he had been very impressed at the calm reaction of the Chinese leadership, which suggests a determination to see whether a calm dialogue can be developed.
But the Global Times, a state-run newspaper that sometimes reflects views from within the Communist party, was less reserved, railing against what it called Trumps outrageous, reckless and unexpected provocations.
Trumps China-bashing tweet is just a cover for his real intent, which is to treat China as a fat lamb and cut a piece of meat off it, the nationalist tabloid claimed on Tuesday in an editorial.
The tabloid said Trumps tantrum suggested it was now inevitable that Sino-US ties will witness more troubles in his early time in the White House.
We must be fully prepared, both mentally and physically, for this scenario, the Global Times warned.
No matter what Trump thinks, China must be determined to upset his unreasonable requests at his early time in office, and fight back if his moves harm Chinas interests, regardless of the consequences to the dynamics of the Sino-US relationship.
A commentary in the English-language edition of the Peoples Daily, the Communist partys official mouthpiece, also lamented what it called Trumps unscrupulous and despicable actions.
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Trump and his transition team should realise that making trouble for China-US ties is making troubles for themselves, it warned.
In the days after Trumps shock election some academics on both sides of the Pacific had speculated his arrival in the White House might enable a new, warmer phase of US-China relations.
John Delury, a China expert from Yonsei University in Seoul, said Trumps anti-China campaign rhetoric, his decision to engage with Tsai Ing-wen and the nature of the policy team now forming around the president-elect suggested such expectations were misplaced.
If you look at his advisers, the China people are not the kind who are looking to improve the relationship [with Beijing], Delury said.
Among those offering Trump tips on China policy are a collection of hawkish scholars whose bibliographies include titles such as Death by China: Confronting the Dragon A Global Call to Action; The Hundred-Year Marathon: Chinas Secret Strategy to Replace America as the Global Superpower and Awkward Embrace: The United States and China in the 21st Century.
Ultimately, however, Delury said the property tycoons true plans remained an enigma, both in Washington and Beijing.
If Americans themselves dont know what their president is planning to do, how can the Chinese know?
Speaking in Taipei, the Taiwan capital, on Tuesday Tsai said that despite her surprise conversation with Trump she did not foresee major policy shifts in the near future because we all see the value of stability in the region.
A senior Republican politician who is among those thought to be advising Trump on China policy used a visit to Taipei to deny that a significant change in US-Taiwan relations was imminent.
Stephen Yates, an adviser to the former vice-president Dick Cheney, told reporters the telephone call was an important step in the direction that many of us have long advocated but cautioned against over-interpreting the contact. It would not be reasonable to anticipate major changes in US policy at this point. Lets allow the new administration to get beyond inauguration and formation of its new policy team, he said.
Yates, who denied being a formal member of Trumps transition team, said he was not aware of plans for Tsai to meet the president-elect during an upcoming trip to New York, but added: Would I think it a good idea for our leaders to be able to meet and see each other and talk to each other? The answer for me, as a private citizen, is unequivocally yes.