Trade, Taiwan and now Trump: China braces for a volatile new era in U.S. ties

CHONGQING, NOV 10 "We must find a way to “get along,” Chinese President Xi Jinping told President-elect Donald Trump in a congratulatory message Thursday — an immediate nod to the long-frayed relations between the rival superpowers as well as the disruption Trump’s return to the White House might bring.

Trump could inject new levels of volatility into what is often described as the world’s most important bilateral relationship, after an election win that comes at a critical moment for the globe’s two largest economies.

Ties have been at their lowest point in decades amid disputes over trade, technology, Taiwan and Chinese aggression in the South China Sea. But since last year, the Biden administration has taken steps to improve relations with Beijing, which is one of Washington’s largest trading partners but is also seen as its main long-term strategic adversary.

“What President Biden has been able to achieve is, we have better channels of communication between our leadership and theirs, and we want to keep this relationship stable and keep it peaceful,” U.S. Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns told NBC News Wednesday at an election watch party at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing.

“That’s very important to them as well.”

In addition to the consequences for the global economy, an increase in U.S.-China tensions would have far-reaching implications for U.S. allies in the Asia-Pacific region such as South Korea, Japan and Australia.

A 'new era'
Xi was among the many world leaders who quickly congratulated Trump, saying the U.S. and China “will both benefit from cooperation and lose from confrontation,” Xinhua, China’s state-run news agency, reported Thursday.

He “urged the two countries to find the right way to get along in the new era, so as to benefit both countries and the wider world,” it said.

“We respect the choice of the American people,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement earlier.