Chinese media: Trump’s trade advisor pick ‘anti-China’

By Fuat Kabakci

BEIJING (AA) - A Chinese state-run newspaper has accused an economist who United States President-elect Donald Trump has chosen as trade advisor of “anti-China alarmism”.

An editorial published Friday by The China Daily said that Trump’s nomination of Peter Navarro to head the newly established White House National Trade Council “is real cause for concern”.

It said that Navarro, a professor at the University of California-Irvine who has written book critical of Chinese policy, was the “mastermind” of the rhetoric used by Trump during campaigning.

The editorial described the Trump campaign as having had “a similar tone to the apocalyptic language Navarro has used when accusing China of wiping out American manufacturing jobs and waging what he claims is an economic war against the U.S.”

During campaigning, Trump had made comments critical of Beijing, saying he wanted to impose tariffs on imports from China and promising to bring back American jobs he said were lost to the Asian country.

The president-elect courted controversy earlier this month when he had a protocol-breaking telephone conversation with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-Wen.

His move elicited concern from Washington and Beijing, with the White House rushing to reaffirm commitment to the “One China” policy.