China says it is “seriously concerned” over Donald Trump’s suggestion that the US commitment to the "One China" policy could be used as a bargaining chip to gain concessions from Beijing on a series of contentious issues.

Cooperation between the two countries “would be out of the question" if the principle is “compromised”, foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said at a regular briefing on Monday.

The angry response follows Mr Trump ramping up his rhetoric against China in a provocative television interview in the US on Sunday, when he said that he would not necessarily be bound by the One China policy.

The principle, which has been followed by Washington since it switched relations from Taipei to Beijing in 1979, has been described by China as the “bedrock” of relations between the world’s two most powerful countries.