In the days after Donald Trump’s sensational election victory Chinese foreign policy experts heralded the property tycoon’s triumph as a rare opportunity to recast the often rancorous relationship between Washington and Beijing. “In everything he is better than Clinton,” commemorated Shen Dingli, a professor of international relations from Shanghai’s Fudan University. “We must welcome him.”
On Monday, as news of Trump’s latest Twitter attack on Beijing filtered through to China, where the social networking site is blocked by Communist party censors, that tune had changed. “Ignorant. Distasteful,” snapped Shen when asked for his reaction to the president-elect’s 277-character outburst and his incendiary decision to engage with Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen on the telephone last Friday. Read more
On Monday, as news of Trump’s latest Twitter attack on Beijing filtered through to China, where the social networking site is blocked by Communist party censors, that tune had changed. “Ignorant. Distasteful,” snapped Shen when asked for his reaction to the president-elect’s 277-character outburst and his incendiary decision to engage with Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen on the telephone last Friday. Read more
