What China Is Up To Now That Trump Is President-Elect, As Told With Pandas
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Beijing is taking steps to fill in where the US is pulling back, but state media argues that China still really, really, really wants to maintain the status quo.
President-elect Donald Trump's stated protectionist approach to the world and trade has suggested a possible leadership void, and left us wonder which world power is going to step up to fill that gap.
Looking around, China has been the apparent beneficiary of Trump's rise —for instance, it's now able to lecture a US President-elect about how important it is to carry out a deal to mitigate climate change.
“A wise political leader should take policy stances that conform with global trends,” said the country's former climate negotiator at a climate conference earlier this month.
Morne De Klerk / Getty Images
And while Trump called the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership a "disaster" for the US, to the disappointment of the partnering economies, China wasted no time in selling its alternative free trade plans to the world.
At the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Community (APEC) Summit in Peru over the weekend, Xi Jinping pushed for regional free trade, and China's version of TPP, known as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), are tempting to the former TPP signatories, which excludes the US at the moment.
Mohd Rasfan / AFP / Getty Images