HONG KONG ��China is moving swiftly after Donald Trump's. election as U.S. president to claim the mantle of the world's champion of free trade and the fight against climate change �� a role reversal that appeared barely imaginable just a month ago.
President Xi Jinping said at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Peru Saturday that he wants to boost global trade and provide a level playing field for foreign companies. Last week, China indirectly chided Trump for his views on global warming, which the president-elect has called a Chinese hoax to hurt U.S. manufacturing.
Xi's remarks show that China is wasting no time in appealing to emerging economies wary of a more protectionist America under Trump, who opposes the U.S.-led Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement and has pledged to scrap the Paris deal to control climate change. Both were key foreign-policy priorities of President Barack Obama's administration.
Still, it remains to be seen how China might develop more of a leadership role on the two issues and profit from a retreating America under Trump. Asian nations remain concerned about China's military clout and territorial ambitions.
Investing in China is very difficult, and the 16-nation deal that Beijing is pushing as an alternative to the TPP is "low level" in comparison, said Jean-Pierre Cabestan, a professor in political science at Hong Kong Baptist University.
"China is taking advantage of the statements made by Trump during the presidential campaign to occupy, if not monopolize, the high moral and political ground," Cabestan said. "We will see on the ground which side will be fairer than the other. I continue to doubt that it will be China, because of the structure of its economy, the lack of transparency, of rule of law and the confusion between political and economic power."
While China has long pushed for other countries to open their markets, and has trade agreements with countries like Australia, the U.S. has often criticized it for not opening its the economy more to foreign companies. China has also made limited progress on a planned three-way trade deal with South Korea and Japan.
Just months ago it was the U.S. pushing for China to respect the "rules-based" international order, chastising Beijing for ignoring the outcome of an international arbitration court that found its claims to most of the South China Sea to have no legal basis. The ruling determined that China's efforts to assert control over the waters had "aggravated" tensions with other claimants and was seen as a setback for China's neighborhood diplomacy.
Xi also called for "a smooth transition" to a new U.S. administration. Trump has blamed China for taking U.S. jobs and has said he will instruct his Treasury secretary to designate the country a currency manipulator.
Obama had previously predicted that not approving the TPP, which does not include China, would allow Beijing to replace Washington as the driver of global trade rules. Signs of that were already apparent, with countries like Malaysia and even Japan �� a U.S. ally �� saying they will prioritize the China-led deal if Trump ditches the TPP. The TPP would go further than a traditional trade agreement and include provisions on intellectual property, labor rights and state-owned company reform.
Some U.S. allies aren't giving up just yet. Last week Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called Trump "a leader we can trust" after meeting the president-elect in New York. Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull also expressed hope that Trump would eventually accept the TPP in some form.
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(Olorunnipa reported from Washington. Ting Shi, Margaret Talev and John Quigley contributed to this report.)
