China Stands Unshaken in the Trump Earthquake

During a February 4 interview with Serbian media Insajder TV in Belgrade, Professor Zhang Weiwei suggested that amid US strategic repositioning, China is in a much safer position than US allies, and that China is waiting to build win-win cooperation with Donald Trump, despite the two countries having different political philosophy.

Professor Zhang speaking to Serbian journalist Zikica Stevanovic

Insajder TV:
First of all, Professor Zhang, thank you very much for your time. Donald Trump’s return to the White House has brought the simmering U.S.-China trade war to the fore. Washington imposed new tariffs on the Chinese goods and Beijing retaliated the same way. The current relations between the U.S. and China are strained right now, but what’s the future of relations between two of the most powerful countries in the world?

Zhang Weiwei:
In the first place, this so-called tariff war, in fact, is not a big deal for China. We experienced Trump 1.0. He launched his trade war with tariffs on China, but we made a rough calculation that about 90% of the increased tariffs, in fact, were paid by the American consumers or companies. So the second one will be very similar. As you say, China retaliated. It seems even Canada and Mexico want to retaliate. So I think the United States will face more trouble. This whole scheme may backfire in the end; in the case of China, it’ll backfire for sure.

Insajder TV:
But the relations between the two countries are not as good as maybe a third party would like to see them. Let’s say, from Serbia, you’re looking at the two most powerful countries in the world. Where do you see these relations in the future?

Zhang Weiwei:
In fact, if you look at the overall approach Donald Trump takes with global affairs, it reminds me of the remark made by Henry Kissinger, or allegedly made by Henry Kissinger. He said, it’s dangerous to be the enemy of the United States, but it’s fatal to be the ally of the United States. His overall strategy is withdrawal; he believes the United States is reaching out too much beyond its strengths. So he’s withdrawing to America. Now he starts with his allies, Canada, Denmark, and Greenland. China is in a much safer position. He said that if China and the United States can cooperate, it’ll solve all the problems in the world, he will visit China within the next 100 days. So we wait for him.

Insajder TV:
But if China and America don’t solve the problems they have right now, what consequence Professor do you see for the world itself?

Zhang Weiwei:
For China, it’s a huge, I think a bonus for the world and for most countries, because we believe in win-win. If there are disputes or difficulties, we can hold talks and negotiations. We find the solutions that both sides, three sides, or other parties will win. For the U.S., it depends on how you view it. I’ll give an example: if you look at China’s relations with Southeast Asia and U.S. relations with Europe and the Balkans, China respects Southeast Asia. Don’t forget, Southeast Asia is called the Balkans of Asia, with different ethnic groups, different languages, different religions, and different political systems. But they formed what’s called ASEAN. China respects ASEAN’s independence, neutrality, nuclear-free zone, and we develop vigorous trade relations with ASEAN based on win-win principles. As a result, China and ASEAN have achieved four decades of peace, development, and prosperity and win-win. This is now the world’s largest free trade zone, unlike the United States’ relationship with the European Balkans.

You see the problem with NATO. The philosophy is “keep America in, keep Russia out, keep Germany down, and divide and rule.” Old Europe and new Europe, all kinds of problems. Chinese philosophy is “unite and prosper”. U.S. philosophy is “divide and rule”. It’s totally different. So the world will eventually move more in the direction that China represents, I believe.

Insajder TV:
But what does the U.S. need to do to become a good partner for China? Do you see anything that the United States should do right now?

Zhang Weiwei:
Basically, the United States should reform its behavior in international affairs. And we give some credit to Donald Trump. He said he will no longer fund USAID, etc. In other words, this promotes color revolutions, creating problems and troubles in so many parts of the world. Indeed, the United States has also suffered so much. Donald Trump made the calculation that the United States became poorer. He always says America is a failing nation; we waste so much money on wars and destruction, unnecessary ones. I think, hopefully, the U.S. will withdraw. It’s about kind of unnecessary intervention in other countries and trying to build America; it should build its own country better. You look at U.S. infrastructure; as Donald Trump said, for the best infrastructure, you have to go to China, not America. The United States is more and more like a developing country. Actually, I share Donald Trump’s view, and I share that it should focus on itself, domestic economic development, and also reforming its political system.

Insajder TV:
China’s rise in recent decades is evident, but no country is perfect. What challenges do you see in China? China’s domestic, political, and social life?

Zhang Weiwei:
Actually, as you said, all countries have their domestic challenges and other problems, this and that. China is a very special country. It’s a vast country, the size of a continent with 1.4 billion people. If you look at the European continent, on average, a European country is a country with a population of roughly 14 million. So China is the size of 100 average European states put together; you can imagine the kind of challenges we are faced with. Yet on the whole, the Chinese philosophy is each and every challenge also presents opportunity.

I give an example: when Donald Trump launched a trade war against China, it’s a challenge. Many companies suffered from that, but we eventually coped with it. For instance, the tech war launched by Donald Trump on China mainly had to do with chips. So now we produce our own chips in large amounts. Last year, China became the world’s largest producer and exporter of trade. Basically, low-end chips are all done by Chinese companies; middle and high-end, China’s coming, represented by DeepSeek and more. Both the trade war and tech war became failures. They made China stronger. We have many other challenges. For instance, we are talking about this AI revolution. It’s a new challenge for Chinese education, for China’s jobs, as with any other countries. So we are following this. We’re trying to find out how to turn these challenges into opportunities.

Insajder TV:
Among other things, that China’s economic opening to the world led it to the position where it is now, the second biggest economy in the world. Some lawmakers from Shanghai proposed some weeks earlier that China may should have to open its internet to the world in some places like free trade zones, universities, et cetera. Do you see that as an important step, if that happens, to the additional growth of China? Is that something that is maybe naturally in the future to happen?

Zhang Weiwei:
When the United States was very strong in the internet business, China was very weak at that time. And China decided to build this called wall against or prevent American companies from really flooding into the Chinese market. So many people said you need this firewall. You should tear down this wall. But in the end, you find these walls are at least temporarily necessary, because with this kind of temporary protection, the Chinese internet industry grows up rapidly.

Now it’s on the part of the United States, if not more developed. Compared with Europe, there’s no wall. In the end, the European Union even did not have a search engine of its own. China has all the equivalent of U.S. apps, but today, if you look at the major apps used in the United States, TikTok, Shein, Temu, and more, are from China. And concerning this wall, interestingly, because of the U.S. TikTok ban, many TikTok users flock to the Chinese Little Red Book websites called Red Note, which means we enter the Chinese internet world with the Chinese language. Because with AI translation, there is no barrier. And millions, literally, netizens from both countries compare notes; young people from Generation Z. And they first are comparing living standards in China and the United States. From big data, the result is the Chinese live a better life than Americans. This is very important. I share this view because I’ve been to the U.S. many times. Shanghai is much more developed than New York. I said this time, the United States will raise walls, and China will tear down the walls. It’s already happening with Little Red Book. We have this confidence.

Insajder TV:
That was my next question. It was the first time that many Americans, many Chinese had the opportunity to talk to each other that at least temporarily I use it also. Yeah, but do you see that Chinese internet opening up to the world in the future? And would that bring more prosperity, more innovation to China if that happens?

Zhang Weiwei:
You think China has not be innovative enough. We’ve already created so many apps for the world, TikTok.

Insajder TV:
There’s always more.

Zhang Weiwei:
Of course, and then DeepSeek have the United States and Silicon Valley are deeply worried, because this monopoly of chips, monopoly of AI business, OpenAI, this very foundation of monopoly is shaken, and don’t forget today’s US economy is to a great extent, depends on this kind of a belief. Very much is a myth: US is very strong, the best in technology. And that’s why we have the best performances in stock market. All these have loopholes here and there. China can use 1/20 of its price and achieve the same kind of AI result if not better. And more Chinese companies similar to DeepSeek are coming, I’m pretty sure about it. Chinese are very cautious people. We have one product or one company like that open to the world market, many others are in the pipeline. I can tell you for sure.

Insajder TV:
China is present in our region, especially in Serbia. China is one of the main partners, economic partners of Serbia, but Serbia is also a candidate country for the EU, and Brussels does not see favorably the Chinese influence in our country, because they think of this sphere of influence, precisely. What kind of future do you see for relations between Serbia and China given the current geopolitical state affairs?

Zhang Weiwei:
I think China and Serbia are two independent countries and their relationship and partnership, what now we call Comprehensive Strategic Partnership are formed within our own political, economic social context. Serbia want to join EU some support, some against, but that’s Serbians, domestic affairs. So I think these are two separate matters. I myself, did my PhD in Geneva University. I lived in Europe for 20 years. I know this deeply rooted bias against China, against Serbia, against Russia. It is not something superficial. It is deep rooted. Only you have lived in Europe for so many years, you know this by instance, so they try to find another excuse. But I think Europe itself will draw lessons. I went to Brussels many times. I talked to think tanks. I said, for instance, BRI initiative, Belt and Road Initiative will help Africa to build a new infrastructure, which provides many opportunities for Europe. You should also join us. Because every year you have so many illegal immigration from Africa, because there you have problems with job creation you need to create jobs there. Let’s work together. Europe always say no, all these geopolitcial considerations, ideological consideration. We are democracy, you are autocracy, it’s  stupid, I think. I said we don’t wait for you. We are like a bullet train. We move ahead.

Now 150 countries joined in BRI,  brand new infrastructure for many countries, based on new principle, discussing together, building together, benefiting together. Same principle apply for China cooperation with other European countries, with Serbia. Eventually, Europe will regret, I consulted them already. Don’t support Arab Spring, it will become Arab Winter, but they still support Arab Spring. What can we do? I said, don’t encourage NATO expansion. It will cause many troubles, many problems. They still support NATO expansion. And then in the end, the Ukrainian crisis, so many things. I’ll give you another example. Europe is known for green deal. Green deal is so lofty fanfare energy transition. China has completed it’s green deal, green energy now costs lower than traditional energy in China. 70 % EV vehicles produced by China. That’s for better climate protection, climate change, we have way to deal with that because of China. How we do it? No, but Europe said, no, I said we don’t wait for you. We had good cooperation with Europe many years back on this Galileo system, you may know this EU GPS system. In the end, they follow United States. They said a lot of restrictions are Chinese cooperation for this Galileo plan. We’ve already made the investment put money into it. Now we say, sorry, we withdraw from this cooperation, we do our own, we have Beidou system. Now the Beidou satellites is much better than GPS this is also available for all BRI members. So really, I think EU eventually it will realize they should really reduce this amount of arrogance. We don’t buy this.

Insajder TV:
Professor Zhang, thank you very much for your time.

Zhang Weiwei:
Thank you very much.

Editor: yanghanyi