China, US need to tackle ‘growing pains’ together: People’s Daily says ahead of Trump 2.0

China and the United States should seek more common ground and avoid strategic misjudgment, the state-run People’s Daily said on Sunday, in an apparent call to the coming Trump administration to deepen engagement.

The editorial in the Communist Party mouthpiece came two days after a phone call between Chinese President Xi Jinping and US president-elect Donald Trump, and just ahead of his inauguration on Monday. The South China Morning Post will feature a live blog of the ceremony in Washington.

In mapping the way forward for the two countries, the People’s Daily mentioned the “ice-breaking” in the 1970s, when shared interests acted as “the strongest adhesive”.

In 1972, then US president Richard Nixon’s historic visit to China signalled a major step forward in relations after decades of isolation for Beijing. Both countries recognised the need to counterbalance the Soviet Union in the Cold War and saw potential for shared economic interests.

“The river of history flows ceaselessly, and often the crucial moments come down to just a few steps,” Sunday’s article said, as it sought to set the tone for four more years of Trump.

  

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