Donald Trump’s phone call to Taiwan following the election, and more recent statements regarding a “One China” policy, have both disturbed leaders in Beijing.

Risk of a global trade war, which Trump seems itching to fight, is very real.

Please consider Beijing Hits Back at Donald Trump Over Taiwan Stance.

China has warned Donald Trump that the two countries will have “nothing to discuss” if his incoming administration discards the four-decade-old “One China” policy.

“Adherence to the One China policy is the political bedrock for development of [bilateral] relations,” Geng Shuang, a foreign ministry spokesman, said on Monday. “If compromised, there will be nothing to discuss on co-operation in major fields.”

Mr Geng was responding to comments that the president-elect made on Sunday in which he questioned whether his administration would continue to respect the One China policy and shun official contacts with Taiwan over which Beijing claims sovereignty.

Mr Trump’s remarks dramatically raised the stakes with China just a week after he broke diplomatic precedent by accepting a phone call from Taiwan’s leader, Tsai Ying-wen.

Earlier on Monday, a stinging editorial in the Global Times, an offshoot of the official People’s Daily, urged Mr Trump to “listen clearly, the One China policy cannot be traded”.

“China needs to wage resolute struggle against [Mr Trump],” it added, warning the president-elect that China “cannot be bullied easily”.

On Sunday, Mr Trump said he fully understood the One China policy, but was unconvinced by the logic. “I don’t know why we have to be bound by a One China policy unless we make a deal with China having to do with other things, including trade,” he told Fox News.

Dennis Wilder, a China expert who served in the CIA and was the top Asia adviser to George W Bush, said that China would be watching to see whether Mr Trump was serious or whether he had been unwittingly pushed into a corner by his pro-Taiwan advisers. He said that Beijing would be hoping that Mr Trump really had not been aware of the call.

“Look, we’re being hurt very badly by China with [currency] devaluation, with taxing us heavy at the borders when we don’t tax them, and building a massive fortress in the middle of the South China Sea,” Mr Trump said. “And frankly, they’re not helping us at all with North Korea.”