How will Donald Trump's presidency-after he assumes office on Jan 20, 2017-affect China-US relations? This question is uppermost on many people's minds a day after Republican Trump defeated former secretary of state Hillary Clinton in the US presidential election.

Many have taken seriously Trump's rhetoric on the campaign trail over the past 16 months, such as imposing a 45 percent punitive tariff on Chinese imports and calling China a currency manipulator. This could be misleading. Trump had only talked about tariff in the early period of the campaign and not repeated it for a long while. Besides, the US business community and the Congress are not likely to approve of such mutually destructive measures. And the US Treasury Department has repeatedly said in the past year that China is not manipulating its currency.

But how seriously should we take Trump's campaign rhetoric is a problem. Past US presidential candidates have made crazy vows vis-a-vis China during their campaigns, but they forgot them quickly once elected.