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.