Alfred Wu of the National University of Singapore, speaks with TaiwanPlus about what future China-U.S. trade relations could look like with Donald Trump back in the White House.
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00:00As we are just days removed from the U.S. presidential election and Donald Trump is
00:04going back to the White House for a second time, how has China been reacting to this
00:10unprecedented election?
00:13Many people are quite concerned about Donald Trump's re-election because they will be worried
00:20that Donald Trump's tariff imposed on China will be too substantial for China, then China's
00:26economic situation will be even worse.
00:31So many Chinese observers suggest that China's leaders may actually try to have something
00:40prepared for an even worse scenario compared with the Biden administration.
00:46So they will actually double down on their own self-sufficiency strategy.
00:52They try to actually boost their own technology advancement.
00:57Throughout his campaign, Donald Trump said that tariffs would be his main tool in a potential
01:04trade war.
01:05What can and what will China do to counteract this tool?
01:11China may impose tariffs on additional U.S. goods, particularly some significant export
01:19volumes like agriculture and energy.
01:24I would say that China will not actually try to be seen weaker than before.
01:29China wants to be seen stronger than before.
01:33So China also will be trying to have alternative trade partnership.
01:38It means that China will be trying to tap into existing channels to enhance trade relationship
01:45with other countries.
01:46For example, China has spent great efforts on enhancing the trade relationship with the
01:52ASEAN member countries in the past few years.
01:57I think China is fully prepared for that.
02:01But of course, because in public opinion surveys, you will see that many countries have anti-China
02:09sentiments, including countries in Europe, in North America, even in ASEAN member countries.
02:18So as part of this potential trade war, you mentioned ASEAN nations, and we have seen
02:24many ASEAN nations actually try to stay neutral in between a U.S. and China trade war.
02:31Do you think under Trump that there might be a race between the U.S. and China for influence
02:36among the ASEAN nations?
02:40I think ASEAN member countries are very anxious and also very much worried about Donald Trump's election.
02:51But if you look into ASEAN members, public opinions over China and also U.S. are very divided.
02:59Some latest surveys also suggest that they know that China plays a bigger role compared
03:07with before, and China has become a very, very strong country in the region.
03:13But in the meantime, if asked one question about if China becomes number one, whether
03:18they will be worried, I mean, many of them actually are quite concerned about that.
03:25But in the meantime, they are also quite concerned about Donald Trump's re-election.
03:29So here the point will be like, you know, now we enter into a kind of chaotic situation.
03:37We don't have a very, very much like, you know, a benign China.
03:41In the meantime, we also don't have very much benign U.S. president.