Trouble ahead if new president's policies match the rhetoric

A popular backlash against what a swath of US voters see as the negative impact of globalization and free trade has carried Donald Trump across the finishing line to the White House.

If his policies as president match up to his protectionist campaign rhetoric it will potentially spell trouble for the US's economic relationship with its biggest trading partners, including China.

It was a campaign in which he accused China of stealing American jobs and acting as a global "currency manipulator", a message that appealed particularly to blue-collar workers in postindustrial Rust Belt states that have traditionally voted Democrat.