Beijing ‘prepared for rainy days’ if Donald Trump is re-elected, academic says
- China should also ‘prepare for the worst’ but ‘do its best’ in response to further trade and tech frictions, according to Yang Jiemian
- He was speaking at a summit in Hong Kong attended by former US officials, business leaders and economists
Speaking at a summit in Hong Kong, Yang Jiemian, chairman of the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies’ Academic Advisory Council, also said that China should “prepare for the worst” but “do its best” in response to further trade and tech frictions with the US.
Yang said that after dealing with the Joe Biden administration for three years, Beijing knew what was on the table and could push to “translate the San Francisco vision into reality”.
“But … we must calculate and prepare for anything that Trump could do [differently] from his first term,” he said, adding that Beijing was “always prepared for the rainy days”.
Yang was addressing former US officials, business leaders and economists at the first Global Prosperity Summit, co-organised by the SIIS and Hong Kong think tank the Savantas Policy Institute.
In response, China’s commerce ministry said the country would take “resolute measures to safeguard its interests”.
