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       BEIJING – China will work with the US on the basis of mutual respect, it said on Nov 6 after Donald Trump claimed victory in the US presidential election, but strategists said Beijing was bracing itself for a bitter superpower rivalry over trade, technology and security issues.

       “Our policy towards the US is consistent,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said at a regular news conference in Beijing when asked how Trump returning to the Oval Office would affect US-China relations.

       “We will continue to view and handle China-US relations in accordance with the principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation,” she added.

       Chinese strategists, however, said they expected more fiery rhetoric and potentially crippling tariffs from Trump, although some said his isolationist foreign policy could give Beijing a vacuum to expand its global influence.

       “Beijing anticipated a close race in the US election. Although Trump’s victory is not China’s preferred outcome and raises concerns, it is not entirely unexpected,” said Dr Tong Zhao, senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

       “The Chinese leadership will likely strive to maintain an appearance of a cordial personal relationship with Trump, while intensifying efforts to project China’s power and strength.”

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       Dr Da Wei, director of the Centre for International Security and Strategy at Tsinghua University in Beijing, said Trump’s victory “may pose a relatively large challenge to Sino-US relations” based on his campaign policy proposals and actions in his previous term.

       “Due to Trump’s high unpredictability, it is difficult for China to say that there is a fully formed plan to do ‘x’ when Trump comes to power. It also depends on what policies the Trump administration implements.”

       Trump has proposed tariffs on Chinese imports in excess of 60 per cent and ending China’s most-favoured-nation trading status, and analysts say the prospect of a trade war has rattled the communist leadership.

       China sells goods worth more than US$400 billion (S$532 billion) annually to the US and hundreds of billions more in components for products Americans buy from elsewhere.

       “Beijing is particularly wary of a potential revival of the trade war under Trump, especially as China currently faces significant internal economic challenges,” said Dr Zhao.

       “China also expects Trump to accelerate the decoupling of technologies and supply chains, a move that could threaten China’s economic growth and indirectly impact its social and political stability.”

       In response, China is likely to intensify its push for greater technological and economic self-sufficiency while feeling more pressure to bolster economic ties with countries like Russia, he added.

       “Going forward, Beijing would likely be drawing up a list of clear bargains and interest trade-offs that it could float with Washington, in hope that it can focus on its much-needed domestic economic concerns while Trump’s attention is occupied elsewhere,” said Dr Brian Wong, assistant professor at the University of Hong Kong who studies grand strategy.

       China is likely to shore up ties with the Global South, Europe and North-east Asian countries in the event of a Trump win, given his “transactional, isolationist, anti-globalist and anti-multilateral foreign policy”, said Dr Wong.

       Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi reached a rare rapprochement in October, while Beijing has tentatively reached out to the new Japanese administration this autumn following years of strained relations.

       “China expects the second Trump administration to further disengage from international agreements and commitments, creating opportunities for China to expand its influence in emerging power vacuums,” Dr Zhao added.

       Trump has unnerved democratically governed Taiwan by saying it should pay Washington for its defence and that it had taken US semiconductor business.

       “The Biden administration applied high-pressure tactics to China on Taiwan, with US troops stationed in Taiwan and even selling weapons to Taiwan… in a huge break with the former Trump administration’s Taiwan policy,” international relations scholar Shen Dingli in Shanghai said.

       Washington in October approved a US$2 billion arms sale to Taiwan.

       “Trump is not too likely to give Taiwan the same support in future,” said Dr Shen. REUTERS