By South China Morning Post | Created at 2025-03-10 08:34:42 | Updated at 2025-03-10 12:28:06
3 hours ago
A former Australian prime minster said the Trump administration’s treatment of long-time allies was providing an opportunity for China, in remarks that came shortly before the US president delivered a personal rebuff.
Malcolm Turnbull, who led Australia from 2015 until 2018, said the world is seeing a more “undiluted” version of Donald Trump in his second term in office. Such behaviour would be viewed as an “advantage” for China’s President Xi Jinping in international relations over the next four years.
“President Xi will aim to be the exact opposite of Trump,” Turnbull said in a Bloomberg interview on Monday. “Where Trump is chaotic, he will be consistent. Where Trump is rude and abusive, he’ll be respectful. Where Trump is erratic, he will be consistent.”
Through such an approach, Turnbull said, there would be countries that look at “China on the one hand, and Trump on the other” and would “find China a more attractive partner.”
Turnbull led Australia for part of Trump’s first term in office, and had a sometimes fractious relationship with the US president.
Shortly after the interview, Trump posted on social media that Turnbull “never understood what was going on in China, nor did he have the capacity to do so.”
