WASHINGTON - US President-elect Donald Trump has signalled that he will take a hardline stance against China on trade, as he took to Twitter to say he will not be told by Beijing whom he should or should not talk to.

In two tweets on Sunday (Monday Dec 5, Singapore time) to his 16.6 million Twitter followers, Mr Trump said: "Did China ask us if it was OK to devalue their currency (making it hard for our companies to compete), heavily tax our products going into... their country (the U.S. doesn't tax them) or to build a massive military complex in the middle of the South China Sea? I don't think so!''

The tweets showed Mr Trump is remaining on his campaign message: that he will move to change the balance on trade with China.

At a rally in Fort Wayne, Indiana, in May this year , he referred to the fact that China exports more to the US than it imports from the country and said: "We can't continue to allow China to rape our country, and that's what they're doing.''

He also repeatedly accused China of manipulating its currency to make its exports more competitive on the global market, and criticised China's building of facilities, including airstrips, on disputed islands in the South China Sea.

Mr Trump's tweets came barely two days after he protested at the criticisms directed at him for speaking with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen on Friday. The call was planned well ahead of time, according to the Washington Post which quoted people involved in the planning.

Washington does not recognise Taiwan diplomatically and closed the US Embassy in Taipei in 1979. But the US has deep trade and defence ties with Taiwan, which annoy Beijing. A call between the US President-elect to Taiwan's President would be seen in Beijing as very provocative diplomatic hardball, analysts said.

On NBC programme Meet the Press' on Sunday though, Vice President-elect Mike Pence said: "I think I would just say to our counterparts in China that this was a moment of courtesy.''

Mr Trump had a similar congratulatory call with China President Xi Jinping, and "that was not a discussion about policy", he said.

Others were not so diplomatic. Among prominent conservatives who sprang to Mr Trump's defence when he faced criticism over the Taiwan call was former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee who told Fox News: "I don't know what the big fuss is about other than it's a real test of whether Donald Trump is going to lead the American people or whether he's going to do what a lot of administrations have done - and that's let the Chinese dictate to an American president what we will and won't do.

"It's refreshing to see a US president say that America will do what it doggone wants to - and deal with it."

Mr Trump's Twitter burst on trade signals that the President-elect is gearing up to take a muscular approach to China. Mr Trump has threatened to raise tariffs on imports - from China as well as Mexico. Analysts expect Chinese steel to be a potential first industry to be hit with tariffs.

Last month, Mr Dan DiMicco was named one of the leaders of Mr Trump's "landing team'' for the office of the US Trade Representative (USTR). The teams contact government agencies and work on the transition to the Trump administration.

Mr DiMicco - widely respected in the steel industry and chairman emeritus of Utah-based Nucor Steel - is a strident advocate of a more robust approach to China on trade. In October 2016, he wrote on his blog that the US and China were already in a trade war.

"The Trump trade policy is both sound and necessary in today's World where 'Trade Cheating' has become the norm'' he wrote. "Nowhere is it more rampant and destructive than in the case of China. It is the 8000 pound Gorilla when it comes to Cheating. They have done this through their massive 'State Owned Enterprises' and State Owned Economy. They have done it by stealing IP and Cheating in Trade.'

"Hillary Clinton has claimed Trump's trade policies will start a 'Trade War' but what she fails to recognise is we are already in one.

"Trump clearly sees it and he will work to put an end to China's 'Mercantilist Trade War'! A war it has been waging against us for nearly 2 decades!''

Thus far, analysts have said it remains to be seen if he will follow through on his campaign vows - one of which was to slap 35 to 45 per cent tariffs on imports from China. Sunday's tweets indicate he is still serious about it - and the background of his pick to head his USTR landing team indicates he is on the same page as well.