Given Donald Trump’s penchant for bashing all thing China—or even his obvious relish in enunciating the country’s name—one might expect Beijing to worry about the prospect of the real estate mogul rising to the presidency. And yet, there are also reasons to believe that China would welcome a Trump administration.

Hillary Clinton may have been far too accommodating of China’s human rights abuses during her tenure as secretary of state, but Donald Trump, whatever his virtues, has not exactly made the promotion of human rights or democracy a hallmark of his candidacy. Moreover, one could easily envisage Trump cutting a “deal” with China on a subject like, say, Taiwan. How much does Taiwan “pay us” for her implicit protection by the United States, after all?