President-elect Donald Trump looks determined to put the United States on a collision course with China, after deepening criticism of a long-standing principle underpinning Sino-US relations.
Trump said Sunday, in a Fox News interview, that he understood the “One China” policy, after breaking decades of protocol by accepting a post-election congratulatory phone call from Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-Wen.
He then went on to question the utility of the policy, telling Fox News anchor Chris Wallace that it could be used as leverage.
“I don’t know why we have to be bound by a One China policy unless we make a deal with China having to do with other things, including trade,” Trump said.
“I mean, look…we’re being hurt very badly by China with devaluation,” he added, “with taxing us heavy at the borders when we don’t tax them; with building a massive fortress in the middle of the South China Sea, which they shouldn’t be doing; and, frankly, with not helping us at all with North Korea.”
A former White House aide on East Asian security issues under President Obama told The New York Times on Sunday that any skepticism of the “One China” policy by Trump will likely lead to a deterioration in bilateral relations between Washington and Beijing.
“Mixing trade with an issue seen by Beijing as involving sovereignty is likely to produce an angry Chinese backlash and worsen both issues,” Jeffrey Bader told the paper.
The United States used to recognize Taiwan as the legitimate government of mainland China, from after the Chinese Communist Revolution, in 1949, until 1972, when the “One China” policy was established by President Richard Nixon.
The US ceased recognizing Taiwan, diplomatically, in 1979, per demands from Beijing, though Washington still maintains relations with the country, which China considers a “renegade province.” Nationalist forces fled to the island of Taiwan and established a base there, after Chinese Communists led by Mao Zedong, triumphed in a power struggle.
The Dec. 2 conversation between Trump and Tsai was preceded by elaborate planning, despite Trump’s subsequent claims of spontaneity.
Publications run by the Chinese Communist Party lashed out at Trump’s Fox News interview.
“The calculating businessman might feel shrewd about seizing China’s fate by the throat through the Taiwan question,” The Global Times declared. “However, the truth is this inexperienced president-elect probably has no knowledge of what he’s talking about.”
“He has overestimated the US’ capability of dominating the world and fails to understand the limitation of US powers in the current era,” the publication added.
The People’s Daily was more measured in its rhetoric, though still warned of a severe Chinese backlash to any Trump abandonment of “One China.”
“[B]enign interaction between the world’s two biggest economies can only be achieved on the basis of mutual respect and their political commitments,” the Communist Party publication said, “and the One China principle is one of them.”
During the Presidential campaign, Trump criticized former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as too hawkish and keen on engaging in conflict abroad.
“You’re going to end up in World War III over Syria if we listen to Hillary Clinton,” Trump said, in October.
