It seems that Trump's phone call with Taiwan's president Tsai Ing-wen as well a recent pair of tweets from the president-elect blasting China for devaluing their currency, taxing U.S. imports and military provocations in the South China Sea have served their purpose of ruffling some feathers in Beijing.
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..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 4, 2016
their country (the U.S. doesn't tax them) or to build a massive military complex in the middle of the South China Sea? I don't think so!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 4, 2016
While the "official reaction" out of Beijing to Trump's "provocations and falsehoods" has been muted, newspapers across China, often viewed as a mouthpiece of the Communist Party, have spent the day lashing out at the "diplomatic rookie.". Per Yahoo News, the People's Daily accused Trump of "provoking friction and messing up China-US relations," a move they say will not help "make America great again."
Donald Trump is a "diplomatic rookie" who must learn not to cross Beijing on issues like trade and Taiwan, Chinese state media said Tuesday, warning America could pay dearly for his naivety.
Trump's protocol-shattering call with Taiwan's president and a subsequent Twitter tirade against Beijing's policies could risk upending the delicate balance between the world's two largest economies, major media outlets said.
"Provoking friction and messing up China-US relations won't help 'make America great again'", said a front-page opinion piece in the overseas edition of Communist Party mouthpiece People's Daily.
The Global Times blasted Trump's "inability to keep his mouth shut" adding that Trump "doesn't have sufficient resources" to be provocative with China.
The nationalist Global Times newspaper's Chinese edition also ran a page-one story on Trump's "inability to keep his mouth shut", damning his "provocation and falsehoods".
Noting that Sino-US relations had reached a delicate equilibrium thanks to years of careful management, an editorial in the paper warned that Trump "can make a lot of noise but that does not exempt him from the rules of the major power game," adding that he "doesn't have sufficient resources" to be provocative with China.
"Trump's China-bashing tweet is just a cover for his real intent, which is to treat China as a fat lamb and cut a piece of meat off it," it said.
"He is trying to pillage other countries for US prosperity," it warned, but instead he will unwittingly "smash the current world economic order" of which the US is the "biggest beneficiary."
A companion commentary warned that Trump "will in time learn not to cross China", threatening "a fierce competition" with Beijing if the US increases arm sales to Taiwan.
Meanwhile, the China Daily noted that Beijing would likely remain somewhat muted in their response so long as Trump is "shooting from the hip" but warned that a failure to "moderate his behavior" after taking office would result in "costly troubles" for the United States.
Meanwhile the English-language China Daily newspaper warned that "diplomatic rookie" Trump needs to moderate his behaviour or he will create "costly troubles for his country".
"As president-elect, Trump can expect some forgiveness even when he is shooting from the hip. But things will be different when he becomes president."
"If Trump continues talking this way after taking office... China is going to have to make some adjustments in its thinking," Jia Qingguo, professor at Peking University, told AFP, calling the comments "sobering".
Well, this relationship certainly seems to be off to a fantastic start...should be full of very fun developments over the next four years.