Winton Dong

    dht620@sina.com

    TWO days after his telephone conversation with Taiwan leader Tsai Ing-wen, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump again lashed out at China by writing on his Twitter on Dec. 4, “Did China ask us if it was OK to devalue their currency (making it hard for our companies to compete), heavily tax our products going into their country (the U.S. does not tax them) or to build a massive military complex in the middle of the South China Sea? I don’t think so.”

    It is naive for a future U.S. president to say so. Such words are more likely from the mouth of a naughty child who has been blamed and tries to defend himself. Actually, this is not the first time that the outspoken Trump has criticized Chinese policies. During the presidential campaign, he made several controversial promises such as branding China as a currency manipulator and others.

    Frankly speaking, Trump is not a sophisticated politician and his allegations are totally groundless. The depreciation of the Chinese currency yuan is surely beneficial to the United States because more capital from China will flow into the U.S. And the principle of reciprocity is a common practice used in international trade. Doesn’t he know the U.S. authorities are levying as high as 266 percent tariffs on some steel products imported from China? Moreover, Trump has recently threatened to levy 35 percent duties on all American companies who want to move production overseas. This is out and out trade protectionism and national isolationism. As for the South China Sea issue, as the name states it is the South China Sea, thus it has nothing to do with the United States that is more than 10,000 kilometers away.

    After winning the presidential election in November, Trump has nominated several important aides such as Michael Flynn and KT McFarland as national security advisers, James Mattis as defense secretary, Steve Bannon as chief strategist, and Reine Priebus as White House chief of staff.

    These hawkish officials will surely give Trump a lot of ideas to agitate and annoy other countries. However, Trump really needs a well-versed and sophisticated assistant who can quench fire for him. And this time, Vice President-elect Mike Pence serves as his important fire extinguisher. After Trump’s conversation with the Taiwan leader, Pence quickly downplayed the telephone call, saying it was only a “courtesy” call and not intended to show a shift in U.S. policy on China.

    Actually, neither Trump nor Pence is now qualified to speak on behalf of the U.S. Government. On Dec. 5, President Barack Obama’s administration reaffirmed its one-China policy. U.S. State Department deputy spokesman Mark Toner credited stable and peaceful cross-Straits relations since 1979 to the fact that the U.S. has followed the one-China policy.

    According to a Wall Street Journal report on Dec. 5, 93-year-old republican Bob Dole arranged and orchestrated the telephone conversation between Trump and Tsai. American news portal Politico also revealed on Dec. 6 that Taiwan authorities paid Dole and his law firm Alston & Bird a total of US$140,000 from May to October this year for arranging the conversation. But Dole refused to make any comment.

    Facing an incoming U.S. president who is so outspoken, I am sure such tweets will be more frequent after Trump’s inauguration in January next year. It is unnecessary for China to overreact and we can just take a wait-and-see attitude and stick to a “3C” (calm, confident and compatible ) strategy.

    The first is to stay calm. While facing any confrontation, if you lose your temper, you have already fallen into the trap of others and lost the game. Since Trump is outspoken, what he said is not so important. We can focus on his actions, especially his policies toward China. I am happy to see that the Chinese Government is mature enough not to be disturbed and agitated by Trump’s words this time. According to U.S. media, even former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger highly praised China for its calm reaction after the telephone conversation.

    The second is to stay confident. No matter if Trump deliberately lashed out at China or if it was only his carelessness, his administration will use it as a tool to test the bottom line of China. It has also sent a signal that the United States has scruples with taking actions against China or adjusting its policies toward China. This means China is much stronger than before both in economic power and in international influence. To make our country more advanced, we should build more confidence with our socialist road, political system, economic reforms and opening-up policies.

    The third is to stay compatible. As a powerful country, it is very important for Chinese leaders to seek common ground while reserve differences in handling international affairs. In Western countries, even a president can be criticized and laughed at. Such a cultural difference often makes leaders from Eastern and Western countries perplexed and even shocked while communicating with each other. It is really unnecessary to be alarmed by their words and sometimes, we can just regard their criticism as a Western-style humor or something like that.

    (The author is the editor-in-chief of the Shenzhen Daily and guest professor of Shenzhen University with a Ph.D. from the Journalism and Communication School of Wuhan University.)