Long Yongtu, a former deputy minister of Chinese foreign trade and a negotiator in China’s 15-year talks to enter the World Trade Organisation (WTO), said, during a Credit Suisse China Investment Conference, that China would gladly welcome the re-election of Trump in the US 2020 presidential elections, according to the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
“Trump talks about material interests, not politics. Such an opponent is the best choice for negotiations,” said Yongtu, who currently heads the Beijing-based Centre for China and Globalisation, in an interview with SCMP.
The former Beijing official stated that Trump is “easy to read”, unlike his predecessors. Yongtu reportedly said that Trump does not seek fights with China over hot geopolitical issues like Hong Kong or Taiwan, which are central to Beijing.
“He makes the US decision-making process efficient and transparent, because he basically says what it is… We don’t need to spend so much time figuring out what Americans want any more, or search for each other’s real thoughts in the dark, like we used to,” Long said,a according to the report.
Commenting on the ongoing trade war between the world’s two largest economies, the former trade envoy said that it is “part of Trump’s global protectionist strategy”. Long noted that it is Trump’s White House that withdrew the US from key international treaties such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) while imposing tariffs on trade partners from the European Union, as well as Canada and Mexico.