KAOHSIUNG, Taiwan —Theofficial response from Xi Jinping’s communist China to President-elect Trump’s victory was formulaic.

‘Our policy towards the U.S. is consistent,’ foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters Wednesday afternoon. ‘We will continue to view and handle China-U.S. relations in accordance with the principles of mutual respect, peaceful co-existence and win-win cooperation.’ 

National Taiwan University Department of Philosophy professor Yuan Juzheng returned to Taiwan from a trip to China Monday, where, he noted, nearly everyone he met with wanted to talk about the U.S. election. He told Fox News Digital a Trump win is a ‘worst-case scenario’ for Beijing. China experts, as well as Chinese citizens online, believe the next four years under President-elect Trump will almost certainly worsen already strained ties.

During the campaign, Trump made it abundantly clear he would adopt a tariff-based approach to trade with China. Professor Yuan explained that China had ‘not been prepared psychologically’ when, around 2018, President Trump hit huge Chinese companies such as Huawei with tariffs.

But this time around, Yuan says, China knows how much such policies will hurt, and they will come at a time when China’s domestic economy is not doing well. 

‘Three key issues will continue to dominate the U.S.-China relationship. They are the three T’s — trade, technology and Taiwan,’ Zhiqun Zhu, a professor of political science and international relations at Bucknell University, told Fox News Digital a few hours before Trump’s stunning triumph became official. 

On Wednesday, Taiwan President William Lai wrote on X, ‘Sincere congratulations to President-elect @realDonaldTrump on your victory. I’m confident that the longstanding # Taiwan – #US partnership, built on shared values & interests, will continue to serve as a cornerstone for regional stability & lead to greater prosperity for us all.’ 

Taiwanese Vice President Bi-khim Hsiao, also via X, added, ‘I join President Lai in offering my congratulations to President Trump, VP-elect Vance, and the American people. Looking forward building a strong Taiwan-US partnership, for freedom, peace, and economic prosperity.’

The Taiwanese public has had mixed views about the U.S. election. Some here find Trump’s often brash and blunt personality unappealing. One recent poll showed over 50% of the Taiwanese preferred Harris to Trump. However, many Taiwanese have also said they viewed Trump as potentially ‘better for Taiwan,’ mostly due to an expectation that he will take a hard line on China. That expectation is shared on the other side of the Taiwan Strait. 

Ross Darrell Feingold, a Taipei-based lawyer and commentator on local and regional politics, is among a small group of Americans living in Taiwan who are active on TouTiao, a Chinese information platform owned by ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok. With over 150 million daily users, TouTiao could be likened to a hybrid of Facebook and X. 

On the Sunday before the U.S. election, Feingold posted a question on TouTiao that was finally allowed to be published after some rewording due to China’s strict internet controls. 

‘As a Chinese person, do you think Trump or Kamala Harris will be more harmful to China-US relations?’ he wrote.

More than 30,000 people viewed the question, and roughly 5,500 provided a variety of answers that included some direct support for Democratic nominee Harris, whom Chinese netizens have given the nickname ‘Ha Ha Sister,’ a reference to the vice president’s exuberant laughter. 

Feingold, however, noted the near unanimity in Chinese netizens’ comments that the U.S. is hostile toward China, and they don’t wish to see China rise to its rightful place as a global power. 

‘Based on the comments I received on TouTiao, the public in China seems to think the U.S. — led by a leader from either party — would seek to restrain China’s growth,’ Feingold told Fox News Digital. 

He added that it can be difficult to determine whether internet comments reflect genuine personal opinions or are merely the parroting of ideas from China’s state-run media. Overall, Feingold says, the Chinese public has begun to take American policies personally, interpreting them as being directed at ordinary Chinese people rather than critiques of the governing Chinese Communist Party.

Zhu, the Bucknell professor, laid it out starkly in comments to Fox News Digital, saying, ‘While over 80% of Americans surveyed view China negatively now, the positive Chinese views of America have also dropped. … What is different now than a few years ago is that many Chinese, including liberals in China, have become more critical of the United States … and believe the U.S. is not welcoming Chinese students, tourists and businesspeople.’ 

Zhu noted that some states such as Florida have cut virtually all cultural and educational exchanges with Beijing. 

Japan, which also has a tense relationship with China, offered its congratulations to Trump Wednesday. Barron’s quoted Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba as saying he hoped the countries’ alliance would move ‘to new heights’ during Trump’s second term. 

In a post on X, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol both congratulated and praised Trump, writing, ‘Under your strong leadership, the future of the ROK [Republic of Korea]-U.S. alliance and America will shine brighter. Look forward to working closely with you.’ 

And despite the views of some that North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un would welcome the return of Trump to the White House, there was no immediate official comment from the so-called ‘Hermit Kingdom.’ But North Korea ‘fired multiple short-range ballistic missiles toward its eastern sea’ hours before the U.S. election on Tuesday. 

The Justice Department is looking to wind down two federal criminal cases against President-elect Donald Trump as he prepares to be sworn in to a second term in the White House— a decision that upholds longstanding policy that prevents Justice Department attorneys from prosecuting a sitting president. 

In making this argument, Justice Department officials cited a memo from the Office of Legal Counsel filed in 2000, which upholds a Watergate-era argument that asserts it is a violation of the separation of powers doctrine for the Justice Department to investigate a sitting president. 

It further notes that such proceedings would ‘unduly interfere in a direct or formal sense with the conduct of the Presidency.’  

‘In light of the effect that an indictment would have on the operations of the executive branch, ‘an impeachment proceeding is the only appropriate way to deal with a President while in office,’’ the memo said in conclusion.

Former Attorney General Bill Barr also backed this contention Wednesday in an interview with Fox News Digital, noting that after Trump takes office in January, prosecutors will be unable to continue the cases during his term. 

Barr told Fox News Digital that a Trump-appointed attorney general could immediately halt all federal cases brought by current Special Counsel Jack Smith in Washington, D.C. and Florida. 

The charges in D.C. stem from Trump’s alleged efforts to overturn the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. In Florida, they are centered on Trump’s handling of classified documents after leaving the White House in 2020.

And though Trump would be powerless to halt two state cases filed in Georgia and New York, Barr said local prosecutors and judges need to move on from the ‘spectacle’ of prosecuting the president-elect.

‘Further maneuvering on these cases in the weeks ahead would serve no legitimate purpose and only distract the country and the incoming administration from the task at hand,’ Barr said.

He also noted that voters were well aware of the criminal allegations against Trump when they voted to reelect him for a second term.

‘The American people have rendered their verdict on President Trump, and decisively chosen him to lead the country for the next four years,’ Barr said. 

‘They did that with full knowledge of the claims against him by prosecutors around the country and I think Attorney General Garland and the state prosecutors should respect the people’s decision and dismiss the cases against President Trump now.’

This is a breaking news story. Check back soon for more developments.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is anticipating full Republican control of Washington, D.C., after the GOP swept the White House and the Senate on Tuesday night.

‘As more results come in it is clear that, as we have predicted all along, Republicans are poised to have unified government in the White House, Senate, and House,’ Johnson said in a statement Wednesday morning.

He said Republican promises of ‘secure borders, lower costs, peace through strength, and a return to common sense’ drove Americans to vote red across the country.

‘House Republicans have been successful in securing critical flips in swing states including Pennsylvania and Michigan, while our battle-tested incumbents have secured re-election from coast to coast,’ Johnson continued. ‘The latest data and trends indicate that when all the votes are tabulated, Republicans will have held our majority, even though we faced a map with 18 Biden-won seats.’

‘We will continue to monitor the results and ensure every legal ballot is counted throughout this process.’

As of late Wednesday morning, The Associated Press projected House Republicans to have won 198 seats to Democrats’ 177. Of the 435 House races across the country, the first party to win 218 will take the majority.

A significant number of outstanding races are in California, where Republicans are fighting to hold onto several seats that were critical to them winning the majority in 2022.

The GOP suffered two setbacks in New York on Tuesday night with the projected losses of Reps. Marc Molinaro and Brandon Williams, who were both expected to run in tight races.

Republicans are projected to hold onto Rep. Mike Lawler’s critical New York swing seat and the central New Jersey district represented by Rep. Tom Kean, however – both key suburban victories. They also are projected to flip Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin’s Michigan House seat, which she vacated to run for Senate.

It comes after Republicans won control of the Senate, with businessman Bernie Moreno projected to oust Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio on Tuesday and veteran Tim Sheehy on the path to defeating Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., as of Wednesday morning.

The GOP also won control of West Virginia’s Senate seat, which was expected with the retirement of Democratic-aligned Sen. Joe Manchin, I-W.Va.

Meanwhile, President-elect Trump secured the critical swing states of North Carolina, Georgia and Pennsylvania in the early hours of Wednesday, solidifying his path to victory over Vice President Kamala Harris.

Former Attorney General Bill Barr, who served in President-elect Trump’s first administration, is calling on prosecutors at the state and federal levels to dismiss the pending legal cases against Trump before he takes office once again.

Barr told Fox News Digital that voters were well aware of all the allegations against Trump when electing him to a second term in office on Tuesday, and that it is in the country’s best interest for prosecutors to listen to them.

‘The American people have rendered their verdict on President Trump, and decisively chosen him to lead the country for the next four years,’ Barr said. ‘They did that with full knowledge of the claims against him by prosecutors around the country and I think Attorney General Garland and the state prosecutors should respect the people’s decision and dismiss the cases against President Trump now.’

Barr asserted that the legal theories in some of the cases already had been ‘greatly weakened by a series of court decisions,’ and that the matters ‘have now been extensively aired and rejected by the American people.’

Once Trump takes office in January, Barr pointed out, prosecutors will be unable to continue the cases during his term. A Trump-appointed attorney general could end the federal cases brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith; one in Washington, D.C., for alleged efforts to overturn the outcome of the 2020 election, and another in Florida based on allegations dealing with retaining classified documents after his first term.

The Florida case was dismissed by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon on technical grounds involving Smith’s appointment, and the Washington case was undermined by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that presidents have immunity from prosecution for certain official actions.

‘We got immunity at the Supreme Court,’ Trump told Hugh Hewitt last month. ‘It’s so easy. I would fire [Smith] within two seconds. He’ll be one of the first things addressed.’

However, Trump would be powerless to stop state cases brought against him in New York and Georgia. One is a pending state criminal case in Georgia based on alleged efforts to overturn that state’s results in the 2020 election. He has also been convicted in a New York criminal case for falsifying business records related to a hush money payment made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election and has a sentencing hearing set for later this month.

Barr said the local prosecutors and judges need to move on from the spectacle of prosecuting a soon-to-be sitting president.

‘Further maneuvering on these cases in the weeks ahead would serve no legitimate purpose and only distract the country and the incoming administration from the task at hand,’ he said.

‘The public interest now demands that the country unite and focus on the challenges we face at home and abroad. Attorney General Garland and all the state prosecutors should do the right thing and help the country move forward by dismissing the cases,’ he added.

This includes the New York criminal case in which Trump was already found guilty but has yet to receive a sentence. Barr called on state prosecutors to dismiss the case, despite already securing a conviction.

‘That case is rife with legal abuse and error,’ Barr said. ‘If it were continued to be litigated it would ultimately be overturned, but we shouldn’t put up with that kind of distraction. And I think the right thing to do would be for the prosecutors to dismiss the case.’

When asked if this is likely to happen, Barr’s response was blunt:

‘We’ll see what they think of democracy.’

President-elect Trump’s historic victory over Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday has surrogates of the Democratic candidate pointing fingers and laying blame for the defeat – even before Harris officially concedes.

Harris-Walz surrogate Lyndi Li spoke to Fox News Senior White House Correspondent Jacqui Heinrich at Howard University, Harris’ alma mater, in Washington, D.C., saying that the Harris team wasn’t ‘expecting a blowout at all.’

‘The blame game has started,’ said Li, a member of the DNC National Finance Committee and Pennsylvania commissioner.

Li said that Harris’ pick for vice president, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, may not have been the right choice to carry the ‘blue wall’ states against the Trump-Vance ticket.

‘One of the things that are top of mind is the choice of Tim Walz as vice presidential candidate,’ Li said. ‘A lot of people are saying tonight that it should have been Josh Shapiro. Frankly, people have been saying that for months.’

‘I know a lot of people are probably wondering tonight what would have happened had Shapiro been on the ticket,’ Li continued. ‘And not only in terms of Pennsylvania. He’s famously a moderate. So that would have signaled to the American people that she is not the San Francisco liberal that Trump said she was.’

Li added that she was ‘not sure how much Tim Walz contributed to the ticket’ as the campaign was forced into ‘cleaning up’ the governor’s ‘laundry list’ of gaffes. 

‘In the eyes of the American people, he was the governor who oversaw the protests in Minnesota and probably let it go on longer than he should have. So that has been seared in the minds of American people,’ she said.

‘And also, ideally, you don’t say on national TV that you’re a knucklehead,’ Li said, referring to a moment during the Vice Presidential Debate in which Walz was forced to correct a misstatement that he had been in Hong Kong during the deadly Tiananmen Square protests in the spring of 1989. ‘I just think that’s his very baseline stuff, like politics 101.’

Li noted that Harris’ attempt to present herself as ‘a unifier’ may have ‘undermined her goal’ of getting Biden supporters ‘who were maybe still understandably upset that their leader was unceremoniously, basically pushed aside.’

Harris appearance on ABC’s ‘The View’ may also have been a missed opportunity to show how a Harris administration would not have just been a repeat of Biden’s four years, according to Li.

‘She knows a mistake was to say on ‘The View’ that she couldn’t think of a single thing that she would do differently from the Biden administration,’ Li said. ‘That was the opener for her to show Americans that she’s going to get tough on the border, that she’s going to take drastic measures to bring down inflation. That was her chance.’

Li also pointed to concerns about the leadership of Harris’ Pennsylvania team making poor staffing decisions that ultimately led to muddled campaign messaging.

‘[Harris] heard us. We raised serious concerns about the Pennsylvania campaign’s leadership,’ Li said. ‘She actually installed someone on her own people in the final weeks of the campaign, but I fear it was too late. …We should have people who deeply understand, intimately understand the contours of the state rather than out-of-state operatives who move from campaign to campaign.’

Harris did not speak to supporters who gathered at her alma mater overnight. She is expected to speak later Wednesday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ‘was among the first’ Wednesday to call President-elect Donald Trump, the world leader’s office says.  

‘The conversation was warm and cordial. The Prime Minister congratulated Trump on his victory, and the two agreed to work together for Israel’s security,’ read a statement from the Israel Prime Minister’s Office. 

‘The two also discussed the Iranian threat,’ it added. 

The statement came hours after the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas said Trump’s incoming administration in January must ‘work seriously to stop the war’ in the Gaza Strip. 

Last week, a report emerged claiming Trump asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to wrap up the conflict by the time he gets inaugurated on Jan. 20 if he had won the election. Trump ultimately prevailed over Vice President Kamala Harris. 

Hamas said, ‘In light of the initial results showing Donald Trump winning in the U.S. presidential elections,’ they believe he is ‘required to listen to the voices that have been raised by the U.S. public for more than a year regarding the [Israeli] aggression on the Gaza Strip.’  

The incoming Trump administration must ‘work seriously to stop the war of genocide and aggression against our Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, stop the aggression against the brotherly Lebanese people, stop providing military support and political cover to the Zionist entity, and to recognize the legitimate rights of our people,’ Hamas added.  

Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani – whose country has played a key role in cease-fire talks for Gaza – wrote on X, ‘Congratulations to President-Elect Donald Trump on winning the U.S. presidential election’ and ‘I wish you all the best during your term and look forward to working together again to strengthen our strategic relationship and partnership, and to advancing our shared efforts in promoting security and stability both in the region and globally.’

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas also said Wednesday that ‘We will remain steadfast in our commitment to peace, and we are confident that the United States will support, under [Trump’s] leadership, the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people,’ according to Middle East Eye.

A source from the Times of Israel said Trump initially gave the message to Netanyahu about ending the war when the Israeli leader visited him at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, this past July. 

Fox News’ Andrea Margolis contributed to this report. 

Historian Allan Lichtman, who predicted nearly every election since 1984, was proved to have the wrong projection this cycle after President-elect Trump sailed to victory on Election Day.  

The Fox News Decision Desk projected Trump would win the presidency in the early hours of Wednesday, after Wisconsin’s call for the former president officially brought him above the magic number of 270 electoral votes needed to secure a win.

Lichtman, an election forecaster who had previously correctly predicted nearly every presidential race since 1984, developed a formula that is used to make predictions about presidential elections. He predicted, after the Democratic National Convention, that Vice President Kamala Harris would win the White House this cycle – but election night results show his prediction was wrong.

Lichtman’s ‘Keys to the White House’ consists of 13 true or false questions that he believes establish a strong indication of who will be named the victor on election night. Each question is asked about the two dueling nominees; if ‘true’ they are given a ‘key,’ and if ‘false,’ their competitor receives the point.

The ‘keys’ are as follows: party mandate, contest, incumbency, third party, short-term economy, long-term economy, policy change, social unrest, scandal, foreign/military failure, foreign/military success, incumbent charisma and challenger charisma.

According to Lichtman’s prediction, Harris held nine of the 13 keys before Election Day. These included no primary contest, no third party, short-term economy, long-term economy, policy change, no social unrest, no scandal, foreign/military success, and no challenger charisma.

Trump, however, defeated Harris when he secured 277 electoral votes – and counting.

‘The keys show that Kamala Harris is a predicted winner,’ Lichtman told Fox News Digital ahead of the election.

After Trump was projected to be the 47th president, Lichtman said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that he was ‘assessing last night’s results.’

In a statement shared with Fox News Digital, Lichtman said he will soon be addressing the results.

The Palestinian terrorist group Hamas said Wednesday that the incoming administration of presidential election winner Donald Trump must ‘work seriously to stop the war’ in the Gaza Strip. 

The declaration comes after a report emerged claiming Trump asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to wrap up the conflict by the time he gets inaugurated on Jan. 20 if he had won the election. Trump ultimately prevailed over Vice President Kamala Harris. 

Hamas said, ‘In light of the initial results showing Donald Trump winning in the U.S. presidential elections,’ they believe he is ‘required to listen to the voices that have been raised by the U.S. public for more than a year regarding the [Israeli] aggression on the Gaza Strip.’ 

The incoming Trump administration must ‘work seriously to stop the war of genocide and aggression against our Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, stop the aggression against the brotherly Lebanese people, stop providing military support and political cover to the Zionist entity, and to recognize the legitimate rights of our people,’ Hamas added. 

Hamas also said the ‘new US administration must realize that our Palestinian people will continue to resist the hateful [Israeli] occupation and will not accept any path that detracts from their legitimate rights to freedom, independence, self-determination, and the establishment of their independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.’ 

A source from the Times of Israel said Trump initially gave the message to Netanyahu about ending the war when the Israeli leader visited him at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, this past July. 

The Biden-Harris administration has been largely supportive of Israel, though the White House has spoken out against the Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF) recent military operations. In October, President Biden demanded a ceasefire shortly before Israel launched military operations in Lebanon. 

Fox News’ Yonat Friling and Andrea Margolis contributed to this report.