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US-China relations
OpinionComment

China should beware the trap set by ‘dumb Trump’

Tom Plate says the US president-elect isn’t known for his intellectual prowess, but he is wily: Beijing should not be riled into doing something reckless by his purposely provocative views on ‘one China’

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Tom Plate says the US president-elect isn’t known for his intellectual prowess, but he is wily: Beijing should not be riled into doing something reckless by his purposely provocative views on ‘one China’
Tom Plate
China may risk underestimating Trump, as did countless allegedly smart American journalists during the presidential election campaign. Illustration: Craig Stephens
China may risk underestimating Trump, as did countless allegedly smart American journalists during the presidential election campaign. Illustration: Craig Stephens
With the World Economic Forum plenary meeting up and running this week in Davos, as usual in January, you may find this story poignantly relevant, even though it occurred back in 2000.
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And so US president Bill Clinton, ever restless, orders Air Force One to fuel up for Zurich, where a Swiss military helicopter then lifts him, his then-teenage daughter Chelsea, and what seems like half his cabinet to the Swiss Alps village of Davos, where upwards of 1,500 world CEOs, government leaders, political and literary figures, and a handful of mere journalists assemble annually to mull over global issues and hobnob like excited kids at a preschool.

The first US president to appear at Davos while in office, Clinton makes thoughtful comments on not just the bright but also the dark side of globalisation.

Watch: President Bill Clinton’s remarks to the World Economic Forum in 2000

But it is his other appearance that day I remember best: a closed briefing for journalists, mainly from Europe; and though late, as usual, Clinton, with Chelsea in charming daughterly tow, hits it around with the media for a 90-minute back and forth. Halfway thorough the performance, I whisper to ask the journalist from Agence France-Press next to me of her impression of the US president. In a tone tinged with a touch of surprise, she says: “He’s very smart, isn’t he?” But of course he was; after all, as president of the United States, world leader, he had better be smart, right?

As president of the US, world leader, he had better be smart, right?
Perhaps you can see where I am heading with this. Later this week in Washington, as the big shots and prima donnas helicopter out of Davos, the US will inaugurate its 45th president, Donald Trump. Let me ask: Can you imagine Trump, in Davos in some future year, facing a barrage of European journalists and triggering the same impressed reaction: that he is “very smart”?
The question arises poignantly in the context of US-China relations as President Xi Jinping (習近平) arrives in Davos this week – the first Chinese top leader to attend the World Economic Forum. Will the international press judge the Chinese leader to be “very smart”, whether or not he lowers himself to a surprise press chat?
President Xi Jinping gives thanks to members of a children’s choir after they performed to welcome him on Sunday at a train station in Bern, Switzerland. Photo: Reuters
President Xi Jinping gives thanks to members of a children’s choir after they performed to welcome him on Sunday at a train station in Bern, Switzerland. Photo: Reuters

Chinese President Xi Jinping travels to Davos with a tough sell on his hands

For starters, Xi’s views generally seem more Clintonian than Trumpian. Although hardly unaware of the dark downsides of globalisation (roiling employment dislocation, structural equity, endless trade disputes, and so on), Xi accepts the inescapability of global interaction in this epoch of nano-second internet communication. This line contrasts with that of president-imminent Trump, who campaigned crudely against international trade regimes.

As Trump kills the TPP, Can China-backed RCEP fill the gap?

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