Asked just before midnight in Beijing today how the result of the U.S. presidential election will affect U.S.-China elections, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning released her earlier response to NHK, emphasizing that “China’s policy on the U.S. is consistent. We will continue to view and handle our bilateral relations under the principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation.” In her regular afternoon press conference, she replied to several (generally obnoxious) questions, keeping in mind that the election had not yet been called. Financial Times asked “President Donald Trump is gaining ground in the U.S. election. He said he would sharply increase tariffs on China. How is China preparing for this possibility of higher tariffs? Could it be more fiscal stimulus if this happens?” to which Mao replied: “The presidential election of the United States is its internal affair. We respect the choice of the American people. As for what you asked about, we do not answer hypothetical questions.”
Global Times, whose afternoon coverage reported that Trump had declared victory, quoted Jin Canrong, associate dean of international relations at Renmin University, who recommended: “First of all, whoever enters the White House in next four years needs to bear in mind that China and the U.S. are the major powers and top two economies in the world, so they have significant roles to play and responsibilities to shoulder. If the new President can learn lessons from his previous term to better manage the China-U.S. relations and maintain cooperation and seek more common ground to avoid a zero-sum game and more confrontation, that would not only be good news to the peoples of China and the U.S., but also the rest of the world,” Jin told Global Times.
