Beijing — China hopes for "early results" in negotiations for a giant Asian trade pact, its foreign ministry said on Tuesday after US president-elect Donald Trump vowed to ditch a rival deal, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Trump pledged in a short video message to signal the US’s withdrawal from the TPP — a vast, arduously negotiated agreement among 12 countries that does not include China — on his first day in the White House. The TPP is the economic plank of outgoing US President Barack Obama’s strategic rebalance to Asia, and the US’s departure from the trade pact would render it toothless. Analysts say the move could give Beijing — which backs the alternative Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) — an opportunity to forge ahead with its own trade deals and fill a vacuum left by any US withdrawal. RCEP talks were pressing ahead, said foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang, adding: "Now, we hope that such negotiations can achieve early results." RCEP brings toge...
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