During the raucous election campaign, Trump
fuelled concerns among many of the United States' trading partners by pledging
to renegotiate trade accords such as the North American Free Trade Agreement
(NAFTA) and impose tariffs on imports from countries such as China.
"Turning his trade-bashing campaign talks
into actual policies could bash any hope that the Asia-Pacific will finally
have its much-wanted free trade deal," said a commentary in the official
Xinhua news agency on Saturday.
"Worse, it could drag his country and
the wider world into deeper economic distress," added the agency, which is
a barometer of government thinking.
Xinhua also said that the exclusion of
China from the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade agreement
was not about boosting trade and instead was US President Barack Obama's
strategy to make sure Washington "rules supreme in the region."
Obama, Chinese President Xi Jinping and
other Pacific Rim leaders are meeting at the annual Asia Pacific Economic
Cooperation (APEC) forum in Peru this weekend.
Though Obama championed the TPP as a way to
counter China's rise, his administration has now stopped trying to win
congressional approval for the deal that was signed by 12 economies in the
Americas and Asia-Pacific, but excluded China. Without US approval the
agreement as currently negotiated cannot come to fruition.
China's Xi is selling an alternate vision
for regional trade by promoting the Beijing-backed Regional Comprehensive
Economic Partnership (RCEP), which as it stands excludes the Americas.
Chinese state media has warned Trump
against isolationism and interventionism, calling instead for the United States
to actively work with China to maintain the international status quo.
"The billionaire-turned-politician
needs to prove that derailing the global economy has not been one of the
reasons why he ran for US president," Xinhua said.
