Russian expert says Trump trying to engage China in bargaining

SINGAPORE, December 13. /TASS/. The recent statements made by US President-Elect Donald Trump concerning the One-China policy should be considered as words of a businessman making a bargain, Director of the East Asia and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Research Center at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations’ Alexander Lukin said at a regional conference of the Valdai International Discussion Club, being held in Singapore.

The Russian expert noted that "the president-elect still acted like a businessman, he was trying to engage Beijing in bargaining" which "can be very dangerous." Meanwhile, in Lukin’s words, Beijing "will not respond strictly to such statements before Trump’s inauguration."

Lukin went on to say that in the short term, the parties will be "observing each other." "Although, the policy of One-China is not going to be changed," the expert noted adding that Trump, in fact, did not talk about changes, he just said he did not understand why Washington should be bound by this policy. At the same time, the Russian expert did not rule out that "Beijing could take some reciprocal steps."

Professor Huang Jing of the Centre on Asia and Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore said that on the whole, "Trump’s future policy towards China will be strict." According to the professor, "the worst option is that the future US president would really want to change this principle while no one in the Chinese leadership will be ready to put up with it." Besides, the Chinese expert noted that at present the US was not as strong as it used to be some ten years ago when China had been mustering strength. "This is why at the moment we can probably say that these two states have become equal as far as power goes," he said.