China warns Trump against isolationism
> Media editorials also hit on familiar theme of US military interventionism
BEIJING: Chinese state media has warned the US president-elect against isolationism and interventionism, calling instead for the United States to actively work with China to maintain the international status quo.
President-elect Donald Trump threatened to tear up trade deals and pursue a more unilateral foreign policy under his “America First” principle during a tempestuous election campaign.
But China and other foreign governments are uncertain how much of Trump’s rhetoric will be translated into policy because he has provided few details of how he would deal with the world.
Trump often targeted China in the campaign, blaming Beijing for US job losses and vowing to impose 45% tariffs on Chinese imports. The Republican also promised to call China a currency manipulator on his first day in office.
US isolationist policies had “accelerated the country’s economic crisis” during the Great Depression, warned a commentary by China’s official Xinhua News Agency, though it added that “election talk is just election talk”.
The commentary also cautioned against any tilt towards intervention.
The Chinese media in the past have criticised the United States and other Western powers for intervening in Afghanistan and Iraq and meddling in international hot spots such as Ukraine.
“History has proven that US overseas military interventionism causes them to pay disastrous political and economic costs,” the commentary said.
Hillary Clinton was widely seen in China as the more hawkish of the two candidates, while some Chinese commentators saw Trump as a potential pragmatist on foreign policy.
A second Xinhua commentary published yesterday morning said the new US president and China should “jointly build a new model of major power relations”.
That echoes the position of Chinese President Xi Jinping that says global powers should work to accommodate, not contain, a rising China in the international system. – Reuters