China doesn't prefer a Trump win, says top Chinese scholar

Ex-president's inclination to ignore allies' concerns seen as a downside for Beijing

- Yew Lun Tian

If Donald Trump returns to the White House, US ties with Beijing are expected to turn rockier because of his mercurial personality as well as the policy discontinuity that typically comes with a change in American government, said one of China's foremost US watchers.

Speaking in Singapore on Oct 16, visiting professor Jia Qingguo, a former dean of Peking University's School of International Studies, described Trump as an "unpredictable, emotional and ethics-lacking person".

When Trump was US President from 2017 to 2021, he would profess his admiration for Chinese President Xi Jinping in one breath and criticise China's trade practices in another. Bilateral relations tumbled as the world's two largest economies became locked in a trade war and exchanged barbs over Taiwan and Hong Kong.

"If Trump wins, then we'll see a repeat of what happened in China and the US during his last term in office: A race to the bottom, high tariffs and very provocative actions like taking a phone call from (former Taiwan president) Tsai Ing-wen or saying that the US Secretary of State will visit Taiwan," he said during the S.T. Lee Distinguished Annual Lecture organised by the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies.