By Zhao Jinping, DRC

2017-02-27

After Donald Trump assumed office as President of the United States, he has formulated and adopted some new policies which will exert a grave impact on the global economy including the Chinese economy. China needs to make a contingency plan to address trade protectionism as soon as possible in a restrained and lukewarm manner.

Trump's hard-line policy toward China is more likely to be put into practice. There have been some signs of a modest rebound of growth in global economic and trade investment, but trade and investment protectionism is becoming an overriding issue. The policies that President Trump has repeatedly mentioned which would directly affect Sino-US economic and trade relations are still in the pipeline, but they are more likely to be carried out, and might lead to the deterioration of Sino-US economic and trade relations.

The US policies’ impact on the political and economic performance of the world will gradually become tangible. 1. It may lead to a series of reactions, causing some countries in Europe to follow suit. 2. Conservatism policy will have a great impact on geopolitics, which may touch off confrontation between major powers. 3. It may increase the risk of the rise of terrorism. 4. The reform results in the global governance for nearly a decade and more may be reversed. 5. It will be more difficult for the management of international macroeconomic policy coordination. 6. The trend of anti-globalization will be further intensified.

China needs to take several measures at the same time to cope with the new US policies. 1. China needs to get well prepared to deal with Sino-US trade frictions. 2. China needs to put the improvement of business environment on top priority as one of the countermeasures. 3. China needs to explore actively new Sino-US cooperation opportunities through an innovation model. 4. China needs to take the initiative and strengthen cooperation with other countries to promote global governance reform and globalization process with collective forces.