Why Trump’s blunt approach will put US relations with China on surer footing

Lanxin Xiang says after eight years of failing to engage with Beijing under Obama, Trump’s team of businessmen and generals will help reduce basic strategic mistrust

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Published: 5:27pm, 27 Dec 2016Updated: 6:53pm, 27 Dec 2016

Trump and his team, led by businessmen and generals, may provide a better platform for bilateral negotiations on the most important dimension of the relationship: reducing basic strategic mistrust. That would be in sharp contrast to the team of President Barack Obama, led by lawyers under the banner of political correctness in international affairs. Illustration: Ingo Fast

Addressing the Valdai Club in Russia in October, I compared the Trump phenomenon and widespread popular protests against established powers to 1848, a year of revolution in Central and Western Europe.

I also wrote a commentary in Chinese on “Trump’s November Miracle”, but none in the mainland press carried it as the Beijing policy establishment firmly believed in a victory for the Democratic nominee, Hilary Clinton.

President-elect Donald Trump recently said he considers America’s adherence to the “one China” policy a bargaining chip, to be traded off against other things that the United States wants from China.

As he said on Fox News Sunday: “I don’t know why we have to be bound by a one-China policy unless we make a deal with China having to do with other things, including trade ... we’re being hurt very badly by China with devaluation; with taxing us heavy at the borders when we don’t tax them; with building a massive fortress in the middle of the South China Sea, which they shouldn’t be doing; and ... with not helping us at all with North Korea.”

Watch: Trump questions US adherence to one-China policy

In other words, the one-China policy isn’t a big deal, it’s a bargaining point, like many other issues. So, is Trump right?