China Hopes For ‘Peaceful Coexistence’ – Voices Caution, After Trump Victory

Update(1419): Beijing’s reaction to Trump’s victory was characteristically guarded and cautious on Wednesday, with a statement expressing hope the future Trump White House will continue to handle China-US relations in accordance with the “principles of mutual respect and peaceful coexistence.”

This presents the possibility of a new beginning in China-US relations “if the chance that has been offered is not wasted” – according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“The presidential election of the United States is its internal affair. We respect the choice of the American people,” spokesperson Mao Ning said. Reporters in the briefing pressed her on policy changes, especially related to tariffs, but she didn’t speculate:

She dismissed the question on his campaign promise to sharply raise tariffs on Chinese imports, higher than his first term by saying, “We do not respond to hypothetical questions.” 

Trump has been making pretty serious threats on this just in the last days ahead of the vote…

🇺🇸 Trump has promised to impose tariffs of 100-200% on goods from EU countries

EU countries are as bad as China, they don’t accept our goods, but they sell theirs to us pic.twitter.com/eq6Drlohag

— S p r i n t e r (@SprinterFamily) November 3, 2024

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Moscow issued a tepid response to Donald Trump’s election win, highlighting that US-Russia relations are still at their lowest point in history, and this would be the case regardless of who is in the White House. But there was also a hint of hope that things could improve under the next Trump administration.

Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Wednesday as the world woke up to news that Trump will be the next president of the United States reacted by saying ties couldn’t possibly get any worse at this point. “It is still almost impossible to worsen relations – they are at the lowest point in history,” Peskov said.

He was pressed on whether President Vladimir Putin would issue a formal congratulations. Peskov said he’s not aware of any plans to do so, which indicates at least for now, the answer is negative. But he also said “we will see”.

Peskov explained, “Let’s not forget that we are talking about an unfriendly country that is both directly and indirectly involved in the war against our state,” according to state media translation. And based on more of his words:

“We have repeatedly said that the US is able to contribute to the end of this conflict. This cannot be done overnight, but… the US is capable of changing the trajectory of its foreign policy. Will this happen, and if so, how … we will see after (the US president’s inauguration in) January.”

But he did note that significant comments could come later after official results are confirmed and Trump formally enters office in January.

But Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova struck a more cautiously optimistic tone, telling state-run Rossia 24 TV channel it was important that Trump “started talking about how America is sick and that the problems of American society need to be addressed” during his victory speech. 

Separately Zakharova also wrote on Telegram, “Those who win are the ones who live with love for their own country, not with hatred toward others.” Thus both the aforementioned Kremlin officials indicated a wait and see approach on the part of Moscow.

As usual it was former Russian President and current top national security council official Dmitry Medvedev who issued the most provocative and interesting response, saying: “Trump has one quality that’s useful to us. He absolutely hates spending money on various hangers-on and freeloaders — on foolish allies, pointless charity projects and bloated international organizations.”

“Toxic Banderite Ukraine falls into that same category. The question is how much Trump will be made to contribute to the war. He’s stubborn, but the system is stronger,” Medvedev added.

From Trump’s War Policy to Ukraine Promise

WATCH: Donald Trump’s full victory speech here 👇🏻 pic.twitter.com/quv4phAyOL

— Noah 𝕏 (@NoahKingJr) November 6, 2024

As for the part of Trump’s speech that Russia appears to be welcoming, he emphasized that he will work to end wars around the world. “I’m not going to start wars, I’m going to stop wars,” he stressed. “We had no wars, for four years we had no wars. Except we defeated ISIS,” the next US president said.

Trump also on the campaign trail had blasted Ukraine’s Zelensky as the world’s greatest salesman, and indicated the era of massive handouts to Kiev at American taxpayers’ expense will come to an end.