Foreign policy experts say that the call could alter relations between the Washington and Beijing, given that the China considers the island of Taiwan to be a “rebel” province and part of its sovereign territory. “I don’t think so!” the president-elect wrote in two tweets on December 4.
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The call with Taipei was the first by a USA president-elect or president with a Taiwan leader since President Jimmy Carter switched diplomatic recognition to China from Taiwan in 1979, acknowledging Taiwan as part of “one China”. “If Taiwan pursues what it wants without considering consequences from China, then Taiwan will suffer”. -China relationship and Taiwan from Beijing’s perspective, calling it the “most important” and “most sensitive” issue.
“I think Mr Trump is hoping to show he is tough and that he can decide who he gets a call from”.
Since Friday’s call, Trump has written numerous times about China on his Twitter page, saying, “Interesting how the US sells Taiwan billions of dollars of military equipment but I should not accept a congratulatory call”. The US president-elect had said that his regime would be strict with China and label the country as a currency manipulator if he was elected to power.
Michael Pillsbury, director of Chinese strategy at the Hudson Institute said he admires Trump’s writing and campaign speeches about how to negotiate with China, including the need to appear “unpredictable” to the Chinese and not revealing one’s strategy in advance.
“It’s only through consistency and implementing this policy, standing by this policy, you have, I said, stable cross-strait relations”, he added.
The US has not formally recognised Taiwan as an independent state since it re-established diplomatic ties with the communist mainland over 40 years ago.
Tsai’s Democratic Progressive Party government (DPP) defeated the Kuomintang (KMT), which had much friendlier ties with Beijing, in a landslide election victory in January.
Nearly immediately following Trump’s phone call Friday with the Taiwan leader, a media firestorm began. “That’s how wars start”, tweeted Democratic Senator Chris Murphy.
“But”, he continued, “we have not had leverage over China in a long time”.
Pence told ABC on Sunday that Trump “took the call, accepted her congratulations and good wishes and it was precisely that”.
China’s foreign ministry called on Washington to block any stopover in the United States. No American president had spoken directly to a Taiwanese leader since 1979.
The response from Beijing was characterized by patience and understanding, and written in a statesmanlike manner – a departure from a government that is known to launch acerbic verbal attacks at those who it feels have “hurt the feelings of the Chinese people”.
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Another posted: “He calls Tsai as +president+ on Twitter!”.
