By Josh Chin 

BEIJING -- China is prepared to take the helm of the global economy if Western nations abdicate their leadership role, a top Chinese diplomat said Monday, days after U.S. President Donald Trump pledged in his inaugural address to put "America first."

"If it's necessary for China to play the role of leader, then China must take on this responsibility," Zhang Jun, head of the Chinese foreign ministry's office of international economic affairs, told a small group of foreign reporters in Beijing.

Mr. Zhang made the comments following Chinese President Xi Jinping's trip last week to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where he delivered a defense of economic globalization in a speech that likened trade protectionism to "locking oneself in a dark room."

Many who listened to Mr. Xi's Davos speech saw it as a rebuke to Western politicians like Mr. Trump, who have pushed for a more inward focus. A stream of commentary in Chinese state media has since sought to portray Mr. Xi as an internationalist and China as the new standard-bearer for free trade.

China's Foreign Ministry has been cautious on the subject. But with Mr. Trump painting an especially glum picture of the effects of globalization in his inaugural speech on Friday, Mr. Zhang entertained the idea of China adopting a new global role.

"If people want to say China has taken a position of leadership, it's not because China suddenly thrust itself forward as a leader. It's because the original front-runners suddenly fell back and pushed China to the front," he said.

Mr. Trump on Friday said the U.S. needed to protect its borders "from the ravages of other countries making our products, stealing our companies and destroying our jobs."

The new U.S. president has threatened to slap steep tariffs on Chinese goods to protect American workers, and has said he might label China a currency manipulator for keeping the value of the yuan low to boost exports. Several economists have questioned whether tariffs are likely to bring jobs back to the U.S. and pointed out that China has recently been trying to prop up its currency, not weaken it.

Mr. Zhang said launching a trade war wouldn't be putting America's interests first. "The goals Trump has set will be very difficult to achieve in a closed environment," he said.

Mr. Zhang said China would continue to push for a free-trade agreement in the Asia-Pacific region, a competitor to the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal. Mr. Trump on Monday formally pulled the U.S. out of the 12-nation TPP. His move was the fulfillment of a campaign promise to end U.S. participation in the proposed TPP deal. China is excluded from the deal.

The Chinese diplomat also pointed to his country's $3 trillion "One Belt, One Road" development initiative, which aims to rebuild the old Silk Road trade routes between East and West, as evidence of the country's dedication to economic interconnectedness.

Foreign governments and companies have accused Beijing of adopting mercantilist policies that unfairly favor Chinese companies and products through subsidies and restrictions on foreign access to lucrative markets.

In an annual survey of members of the American Chamber of Commerce in China, released last week, four out of five said they felt less welcome in China than before, nearly double the rate from three years ago.

Mr. Zhang pushed back at such criticism on Monday, saying China was trying to improve market order and believed its subsidies were legal under the rules of the World Trade Organization. He also pointed to a new plan by China's cabinet, the State Council, to expand the areas open to foreign investment.

Write to Josh Chin at josh.chin@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 23, 2017 13:20 ET (18:20 GMT)

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