China ‘not dreading’ Trump 2.0, but reforms will decide who wins big power game

China is “not dreading” Donald Trump’s return to the White House and might actually benefit in several ways despite fears of “rockier” times ahead, a noted Chinese political scientist has said.

How the rivalry turns out will depend on reforms at home and whether China can “do a better job” of it, according to Yan Xuetong, dean of the institute of international relations at Tsinghua University.

This would also determine whether China could narrow the “power gap” with the United States, Yan wrote in an article for Foreign Affairs on Friday.

The relationship was going to “get rockier” over the next four years, Yan warned, with the US president-elect’s rhetoric and cabinet choices showing a resolve to double down on the hardline approach towards China seen during his first term in office.

Still, China had “learned a great deal” from his first stint, giving it the confidence to face any tensions during the second Trump administration, Yan argued, while all but ruling out the likelihood of a military clash.

“[Trump] will soon arrive in the White House with the intention of containing China, but Chinese leaders are not dreading his return,” he wrote.

With less than a month to go for Trump’s inauguration on January 20, China-US relations are widely expected to enter a new period of uncertainty. Much of the rest of the world is also bracing for the return of Trump and his “America first” agenda to the Oval Office.