Trump can work with China: Rudd

Kevin Rudd has talked up the prospects of US president-elect Donald Trump working closely with China.

During the election campaign, Mr Trump talked about a 45 per cent tariff on all Chinese goods and called the country a currency manipulator.

The former Australian prime minister told a business forum in the Chinese city of Yiwu the US leader and China's President Xi Jinping had at least one common interest.

"Infrastructure can become the new common interest of China-US relations," Mr Rudd said.

"The United States has relatively old infrastructure and investment demand is great."

He said Mr Trump's plan for $1 trillion of infrastructure investment over the next decade offered good prospects for China.

"China is very experienced in this area," he said.