Kerry says would be valuable for Trump to seek advice before calls

United States President-elect Donald Trump has today gone on the offensive against China, days after a call with Taiwan’s leader broke tradition and caused a stir among foreign policy experts.

A top Taiwanese official told NBC News on Saturday that the call had been pre-arranged, and Trump tweeted Friday that Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen had called him. It reiterated the importance of the “One China” policy, stating it hoped Trump would come to an understanding of this.

Trump appears to be pushing back against critics, who say his shoot-from-the-hip diplomatic style risks a confrontation with China.

China Daily, a state-run English-language newspaper, said the affair had “exposed nothing but his and his transition team’s inexperience in dealing with foreign affairs”.

Mike Pence, the vice president-elect, said it was merely a “courtesy call” among dozens of other calls made and received by Trump since the election.

Chen Chun-hao, a 43-year-old designer, said Trump might “bring more help” to Taiwan now that both sides had opened a dialogue.

The two also shared views on governance, especially on promoting domestic economic development and strengthening national defense to ensure a better, safer life for the public, officials close to Ms. Tsai said in a statement.

Todd on Sunday pressed Pence on how significant an issue the conviction for mishandling classified information is for the President-elect, given the emphasis Trump placed on the FBI’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server, which led to no evidence of criminality. Last month, Xi met with Taiwan’s opposition leader, Nationalist Party Chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu.

The US since then has followed a “one China policy”, whereby Washington agrees not to recognise Taiwan as a country while maintaining unofficial relations and even agreeing to support Taiwan should China ever invade.

Let’s just say that Beijing does not like that Tsai Ing-wen has proved that democracy can work for any Chinese person, regardless of where they reside.

Pence also said Trump may consider new candidates for secretary of state, America’s top diplomat, after having narrowed the field last week to four people: Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee; Rudy Giuliani, former mayor of NY; U.S. Senator Bob Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; and retired general and former CIA Director David Petraeus.

Trump was just doing what he said in the presidential campaign: being open to talking to foreign leaders who want good relations with the United States, Stephen Yates and Christian Whiton wrote in an article on the Fox News website. “There is no conflict (in that)”, he told reporters in Taipei on Saturday.

“The “one China” policy is the cornerstone of a healthy China-U.S. relationship”.

Mook said the campaign considered Sanders as a vice presidential running mate and reiterated that he was responsible for turning out droves of voters in the general election. The “one China” policy is by no means identical to China’s “one China” principle.

The complexity of the situation is that only a handful of countries recognize the government of Taiwan as legitimate.

But questions remain as to whether the call signaled a foreign policy shift in a new administration or a blunder by an inexperienced politician and transition staff.

“It shouldn’t be seen as a departure from norms”, Pillsbury said.

As far as the yuan goes, Lincicome noted the Chinese actually are trying to keep their currency from falling, not rising, as Trump has charged.