Trump’s hostility towards China could end in a full-blown conflict

China will have “no choice but to take off the gloves”, if USA president-elect Donald Trump continues to question Chinese policy, a state-owned newspaper has declared.

Trump has also riled Beijing by suggesting the “one China” policy could become a bargaining chip in negotiations over trade practises.

The incoming USA administration’s tough talk against China has set the stage for showdowns on everything from security to trade and cyberspace, but contradictory signals are sowing uncertainty over how far President-elect Donald Trump is prepared to go in confronting Beijing.

Recently, an editorial in China’s Global Times threatened “revenge” against Trump over his comments.

But I want to focus here on the legality, both domestic and worldwide, of US abandonment of the One China policy in favor of some form of increased support or even recognition of Taiwan. First there was accepting the congratulatory phone call from Taiwan’s president, which broke with more than three decades of diplomatic protocol.

Prior to Tsai’s departure for her recent trip, China sent multiple requests calling for the U.S.to stop her from making a transit stop.

However, experts warn that China, Taiwan and the United States could be dragged into a messy military conflict if Trump continues to press Beijing over Taiwan once in power, forcing the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, to react rather than look weak at home.

Perhaps issuing a call of support from other nations, Lu indicated that the “One China” policy is widely accepted around the globe.

The chamber’s report comes a day after China’s President Xi Jinping gave a speech at the World Economic Forum (WEF) championing open markets, and Beijing unveiled proposals to reduce restrictions on foreign investment in China.

Since 1979, when the U.S. and China normalised relations, the United States has respected Beijing’s “one China” policy, which insists that Taiwan is a mere rebel province.

Trump’s latest remarks indicate that he has no intention of taking notice of China’s warnings.

With that in mind, it’s surely inconceivable that the incoming US President won’t play to his electoral base and implement measures to address what he sees as a grossly unfair Sino-US trade relationship.

Taiwan’s leaders, however, recognize “it is a small power lodged between two large powers”, Brown added, so treads carefully. “And they feel the first round is failing”.

Business circles are particularly concerned over the future of U.S.

Critics allege that China’s industrial policies encourage the country’s producers to pump out more goods than the local economy can absorb, which results in a flood of cheap products hitting U.S. and European markets, pushing prices lower and forcing European and USA firms out of business.

A senior advisor to Donald Trump has said the U.S. would win if a trade war were to break out between Washington and China in the future.

Trump had already irked China by accepting a congratulatory phone call from Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-Wen after he won the presidential election, upending decades of diplomatic precedent in which the USA avoided direct public communication with the island’s leader. But the president-elect then publicly criticized China on several issues, including currency manipulation and North Korea. “That is the fact acknowledged by the worldwide community and no one can change”.