Donald Trump has warned China that they will have to "play by the rules."

Speaking at a rally at Des Moines, Iowa, Trump claimed that China is responsible for over half of America's trade deficit.

"China is not a market economy. They haven't played by the rules, and they know its time that they're going to start. They're going to start. They're going to," Trump said.

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Trump was using the rally to introduce Iowa Governor Terry Branstad, whom he has picked as his choice for China Ambassador.

Although Branstad has already a long-standing friendship with Chinese President Xi Jinping, he is expected to deal with a Chinese government that is already wary over Trump's insistence to provoke it, which was made worse by Trump's decision to have a phone conversation with Taiwan's president.

Reacting to Branstad's appointment, the China Daily newspaper said that "a mutually beneficial relationship entails more than a messenger." In its editorial, the newspaper also said that "a diplomat's success to a great extent hinges on his country's foreign policies."

The editorial was also critical of the congratulatory call that Trump took from Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-Wen. The call reportedly breached diplomatic protocol since the US moved its embassy to Beijing from Taipei almost four decades ago.

 Trump's inner circle claims that the call was not a signal of a policy change. There have, however, been claims that the call was weeks in the making, and this has caused some to question whether the incoming government is seeking to revise the " One-China principle" that underpins relations with Beijing.

"If the phone call between Donald Trump and the Taiwan leader was indeed a long term move and was meant to remind Beijing that it is dealing with a different kind of U.S president... Beijing is well aware of that," the editorial in the China Daily newspaper read.

The US broke diplomatic ties with Taiwan in 1979 and recognized the communist government in Beijing instead.

Tagsdonald trump, Xi Jinping, Tsai Ing-wen, US-China Relationship