No winners in trade wars: China's ambassador to US

There are no winners in tariff or trade wars, nor in wars over science and technology or industry, China's ambassador to the United States says after Donald Trump won the US presidential election.

Ambassador Xie Feng encouraged US companies to invest and operate in China, and said he was looking forward to strengthening dialogue and co-operation on global challenges such as climate change, artificial intelligence, in a speech at a US-China Business Council dinner seen on the embassy website.

He did not directly address Trump nor the US election.

"China and the United States can achieve many great and good things through co-operation, and the list of co-operation should be stretched longer and longer," he said.

Trump's return could revive issues from his first presidency, when he initiated a bruising trade war with the world's second-largest economy in 2018, though striking a truce just before the COVID-19 pandemic hit in January 2020.

The Republican has vowed to adopt blanket 60 per cent tariffs on US imports of Chinese goods compared with the 7.5 per cent to 25 per cent levied in his first term poses major growth risks for China.

Xie noted that fast food chain McDonald's in China has added the most new stores in the past year, accounting for about 60 per cent of its stores worldwide, while Shanghai is the only major city globally to boast more than 1000 Starbucks' cafes.

"The more success stories of mutually beneficial co-operation, the better," Xie said.

Xie also said differences between the two nations should be the driving force for exchanges and mutual learning, rather than "an excuse for rejection and confrontation", calling successes of each country opportunities to each other.

Any attempt to contain or suppress China would only "hit a wall", he said.

However, experts say China will focus on exploiting rifts between the US and its allies.

Zhao Minghao, international relations expert at Shanghai's Fudan University said China probably wouldn't replay the playbook from the first Trump presidency when Beijing had a very strong reaction to Trump's moves on tariffs.

He pointed out Chinese President Xi Jinping's message to Trump from Thursday, in which Xi called for "co-operation" and not "confrontation," emphasising "stable, sound and sustainable" relations between the two superpowers.

"Trump is not a stranger to Beijing at this time," Zhao told Reuters. "Beijing would respond in a measured way and make efforts to communicate with the Trump team."

While Chinese tech giants are now far less reliant on US imports, the economy - hit by a massive property crisis and saddled with unsustainable debt - is in a weaker position than in 2016, struggling to eke out five per cent growth compared to 6.7 per cent then.

To make things worse, Trump has pledged to end China's most-favoured-nation trading status and slap tariffs on Chinese imports in excess of 60 per cent - much higher than those imposed during his first term.

To boost global trade, China has been on a diplomatic blitz, shoring up alliances, mending fences with foes, and continuing difficult talks with the European Union, even after the bloc imposed stiff tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles.

Last month China ended a four-year military stand-off with India on their disputed border; in August, it resolved a two-year spat with Japan over the discharge of radioactive water from the Fukushima nuclear plant; and Premier Li Qiang in June visited Australia - the first such trip in seven years.

"China will carry on reaching out to Europeans, the British, the Australians and even the Japanese, not only to try to drive a wedge between the US and the countries of the north," said Jean-Pierre Cabestan, an expert at Hong Kong's Baptist University.

"But also as part of its mission to rebalance its foreign trade in favour of the Global South," he said.