'Senseless' Trump not behaving as US President-elect, says Chinese media

Beijing: After President-elect Donald Trump slammed China for seizing the US underwater drone from international waters, Chinese media criticised him as senseless and someone 'not behaving as a president who will become master of the White House in a month'.

After the incident, Trump had tweeted, "China steals United States Navy research drone in international waters - rips it out of water and takes it to China in unprecedented act," which China's Global Times said "added the most fuel to the fire."

Later, when China agreed to return the US drone, Trump again took to Twitter saying, "We should tell China that we don't want the drone they stole back - let them keep it!".

An editorial in the Global Times said, "Trump is not behaving as a president who will become master of the White House in a month. He bears no sense of how to lead a superpower. Even the US military did not use the term "steal" to describe the move by the Chinese navy. Trump's second tweet makes people worry that he will treat China-US relations as child's play.

The article added, "Now people don't know if Trump is engaged in a psychological war with China or he is just unprofessional, even though he will be sworn in soon."

It also said that regarding the Sino-US relationship, Trump challenged the One-China policy and despised the principles which both countries have adopted to manage crises.

It said that China did not take a stern attitude towards the President-elect's remarks as he has not yet taken office and that he cannot reshape China-US relations and the way the two major powers interact. Since China has kept a calm attitude toward his provocative remarks and warned that Beijing will not exercise restraint, if this behaviour continues.

It is possible that Trump is worried about his upcoming post and is eager to make waves against China so as to gain some leverage from China once he is sworn in. The Chinese government should be fully prepared for a hard-line Trump, said the article.

We should show Trump what the one-China policy is and what bottom lines in Sino-US ties he should not touch, it added.