Donald Trump's inauguration: China reacts with nervousness and hope

BEIJING: China reacted to Donald Trump's inauguration as US president with a mixture of nervousness and a desperate hope that he would not implement threats about restricting Chinese trade and investments.
Premier Li Keqiang announced that China will soon launch its own version of "green card" to attract foreign talent. The idea is to make China a more attractive destination for investments and talented workers before the feared Trump actions kick in.
China will "relax market access, attract more foreign investment and learn advanced technologies and management", Li told a gathering in Beijing on Friday when Trump took charge as US president.
The country's social media is agog with discussions on whether Trump will usher in an American version of the "cultural revolution" that saw wide ranging atrocities and suppression of the educated elite during a bout of intense populism unleashed under Mao Zedong.
The official Xinhua news agency tried to placate the new American leader saying, "As a renowned and savvy businessman, the new leader in Washington knows more than anyone else the merits of a sound China-U.S. partnership".
"Therefore, he surely knows that investment from Chinese businesses benefits the U.S. economy and could help create more jobs for the country," it added.
Xinhua's opinion piece tried to underline China's utility for Washington saying it is best suited to persuade North Korea to shed nuclear capability. It said Chinese companies can be useful in generating jobs in the US.
China Daily came up with a skewed argument saying that Trump's suppression of Chinese exports would force local companies to upgrade their production systems and ultimately benefit them.
"Officials with China's National Development and Reform Commission (main economic planning agency in China) may thank the Trump administration if it can help China offload obsolete, unsustainable industrial capacity quicker," the paper said in an opinion piece.