Much has been said about the impending trade war amid Donald Trump’s threats to implement new tariffs against China, Mexico and Canada. But while many fear this could exacerbate tensions between China and the United States, we could find China is not as impacted as first thought.

As Trump’s second presidential term begins, there is already a key difference in US-China relations from when he first took office. In the eight years since Trump first came to power, China has diversified its trade relationships to focus more on the global south and, in turn, made it less reliant on the US than it was between 2016 and 2020.

Donald Trump and Xi Jinping.

Another indication that the United States and China’s relations may stabilise or even improve under Trump is that the 47th president may have greater capacity to put democracy-based ideology aside, much like Richard Nixon did in the 1970s.

Unlike outgoing President Joe Biden, Trump does not emphasise a strict democracy-versus-autocracy framework. Instead, he has shown in the past that he can take a more pragmatic stance on global affairs. At the same time, notably, Trump has publicly entertained ideas such as annexing Greenland, reclaiming control of the Panama Canal, renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America,” and integrating Canada as the 51st state, all under the banner of defending a “free world” against China.

But while Trump has vowed to take decisive action on controversial election priorities in his first days in office, Trump may find an ally in Xi Jinping. Let us not forget that Trump has said that he aspires to be a “dictator”.

As the head of the........

© The Age