Beijing, Jan 23: China today played down fears of any trade war with America under Donald Trump’s presidency but said the new administration has a “responsibility” to honour the promise of previous US governments to abide by ‘one-China’ policy on Taiwan.
“The one-China principle is the political foundation of China-US relations. Any US administration has the responsibility to honour the bipartisan commitment of successive US governments to continue to uphold the one-China principle,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told media here, outlining China’s “expectations” of Trump.
The US ties with Taiwan should be handled properly and prudently, she said, refraining from commenting on Trump’s inaugural address. However, she asserted that there won’t be any winner in any trade war between the two countries as US-China trade has created 2.6 million jobs in US.
“On Trump’s inauguration speech emphasising about making US first, he talked mainly about the domestic policies of the US. For evaluation of the speech better ask Americans,” Hua said, declining to join issue on the point of ‘America first’.
“We believe in building community of shared future for the mankind. In the era of globalisation, countries interests are closely integrated and interdependent. No one can stand aloof. China will work with all parties to jointly shoulder responsibilities and will continue pursue domestic and foreign policies in keeping national realities,” she said.
However, she outlined that following one-China policy is Beijing’s major expectation from Trump.
“We urge the new US administration to fully recognise the sensitivity of the Taiwan issue and continue to uphold one-China policy and uphold the political foundation of the China-US relations,” she said, commenting for the first time after Trump took over office on January 20.
Her comments followed emphatic assertions by Trump after his election that one-China policy on Taiwan is up for negotiation and that he is not fully committed to it.
“Everything is under negotiation including one-China,” Trump had said on January 15, questioning the decades old policy followed by Washington.
China had hit back saying one-China policy which stipulates that Taiwan is part of Chinese mainland is “non-negotiable”. China regards Taiwan as a breakaway province and insist all countries having bilateral ties with it to abide by the one-China policy.
“Our overall expectations for China-US ties under Trump administration is that history and practice has shown that stable and consistent development of bilateral ties severed the interests of both the people and two countries and good for the peace and stability of the Asia Pacific and world,” she said.
“China and US have extensive and common interests, while we also have differences. The two sides should respect each other s core interests and major concerns and take a constructive approach to resolve our differences and do not let them to disturb over all interests of the bilateral relations,” she said.
Since his election, Trump has riled up China by holding telephone talks with Taiwanese President Tsai-Ing-wen who herself is toeing a hardline against Beijing.
Besides a showdown on one-China policy under Trump presidency, Beijing also apprehends a trade war as he wants to bring about a parity of bilateral trade, which is heavily in favour of China.
China exports about USD 500 billion to US against USD 100 billion American exports to Chinese mainland.
Trump accuses China of devaluing its currency to gain more out of its exports.
Trump also questioned China’s island building in the disputed South China Sea and his Secretary of State nominee Rex Tillerson said China should be stopped from accession the islands.
Hua also cautioned Trump against pulling US out of the Paris climate deal which Obama signed with lot of fan fare.
“On climate change, President Trump mentioned some adjustment of the energy policy in his inauguration speech. I won t comment on it. But on climate change, I can say that it is a shared challenge of all mankind and the Paris agreement is a milestone on global governance on climate change. It puts together international consensus, charts the course forward for the low carbon development,” she said.
“It is an achievement that has not come easily and all countries should follow the trend, seize opportunities, take active actions implement the agreement for our future generations,” she said, adding that China will continue to implement domestic policies and actions to address the climate change, promote multilateral process and international cooperation.
Hua, however, was guarded about any likelihood of a trade war between US and China under President Trump as a result of ‘America First’ policy.
“Whether we are worried about trade wars, we already spoke about earlier. I want to reiterate that China-US ties are mutually beneficial. Over the 40 years the two way trade has flourished. We have now closely connected interests,” she said.
Referring to the 2015 report of the US-China Business Council, she said the two way trade and investment between the two countries created about 2.6 million jobs for the US and contributed USD 216 billions to the US economy, which is 1.2 per cent of America s GDP.
The council also believed that the two way trade has boosted job creation in the US, helped to raise the people s living standards and maintained US strengths in global industrial chain, she said.
“Therefore trading wars or confrontation will produce no winners. It will harm the interests of both the parties. China and US work together on the basis of respect and mutual benefit, work together to uphold a fair trading, properly handle trade disputes and disagreements to maintain sustainable and stable economic relations between the two countries,” she added.
