China and US must ‘get along’, Xi encourages Trump

Chinese President Xi Jinping told US President-elect Donald Trump in a message on Thursday (Nov. 7) that Beijing and Washington need to “get along.”

Trump’s crushing success brings a new era of uncertainty to the US and the rest of the world. It may also mean a change in the relationship between the US and China, which has been tense lately over issues like trade and Taiwan’s status as a self-governing island.

In his first message to Trump since Trump’s reelection, according to state broadcaster CCTV, Xi stated, “History has shown that China and the United States benefit from cooperation and suffer from confrontation.”

“A stable, healthy, and sustainable China-US relationship is in the common interest of both countries and is in line with the expectations of the international community,” Xi stated.

He told Washington and Beijing they needed to “increase dialogue and communication” and “handle their differences in the right way.”

“Find the right way… to get along in this new era, to benefit both countries and the world,” Xi said of the two nations.
CCTV said that Lan Zheng, the vice president of China, also sent a message to JD Vance, who will be vice president-elect.

Both Trump, the Republican, and Harris, the Democrat, promised to be tougher on Beijing.

However, Trump escalated the situation by declaring he would impose 60% taxes on all Chinese goods entering the US.

“Restore some level of balance in the US-China trade” is what the president-elect wants to do, according to Yun Sun, a Senior Fellow at the Stimson Center.

“Given his tactics of exerting maximum pressure before striking a deal, I do expect him to impose the tariff,” she informed me.

The leader of China said on Thursday that he hoped “both sides will uphold the principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence, and win-win cooperation.”

This week, Beijing said it hoped that the two countries could live together in “peaceful coexistence” in the future. However, it didn’t say how exactly the win by the unstable billionaire might affect relations.

Xi and Trump have met four times before, and Trump has said that he has a “very strong relationship” with the Chinese leader.

Xi has also stated that fears of 150% tariffs could deter him from attacking self-ruled Taiwan.

Analysts predicted that the election results would play a significant role in this week’s meeting of China’s top lawmakers in Beijing, which aimed to devise a strategy to boost the country’s faltering economy.

What will worry people the most is how Beijing will react to Trump’s planned huge tariff hike, which, according to asset managers PineBridge Investments, could hit Chinese goods worth $500 billion.

Tao Wang, Chief China Economist at UBS Investment Research, said, “We expect the Chinese government to respond with limited retaliation and more domestic policy support to the economy to partially offset the negative impact.”