Rookie politician Trump will need wise advice from team

China yesterday called on the United States not to let President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) transit there when she visits Guatemala next month, days after U.S. president-elect Donald Trump irked Beijing by speaking to Tsai in a break with decades of precedent.

China has called on the United States not to let Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen transit there when she visits Guatemala next month, days after President-elect Donald Trump irked Beijing by speaking to Ms Tsai in a break with decades of precedent.

Douglas Paal, a former director of the American Institute in Taiwan, which unofficially represents USA interests in Taipei, said it was too soon to judge whether Trump was going to lead that shift, or if the incident was just a “complicated accident”. “We all see the value of stability in the region”.

In response to China’s protest, he said the phone call is just a small step and there is no need to overact. No other US president or president-elect has spoken directly with Taiwanese leadership since 1979.

Trump’s incoming vice president, Mike Pence, played down the significance of the call, describing it as a courtesy, and said any new policy on China would be decided after his inauguration.

Taiwan split from the Chinese mainland in 1949. The president-elect even referred to Tsai as “president”, a grave transgression from Beijing’s point of view. The call sparked a statement of criticism from China, and no small amount of hysteria from Obama Administration officials, who insisted it was a unsafe move.

“And it’s unclear to me how that kind of outcome benefits the people of Taiwan or benefits the ninth-largest trading partner of the U.S. So these are significant issues and worthy of careful consideration”. “It’s still an ongoing event and we are watching”. The U.S. provides Taiwan with military aid but has not had an embassy in Taiwan since 1979.

“While it is reasonable for the people of Taiwan to expect friendly relations from the incoming administration, it would not be reasonable to anticipate major changes in US policy at this point”, he said.

Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday he’s trying to stay “a thousand miles away from the (Donald) Trump transition process” while acknowledging neither the president-elect nor his transition team have consulted with the State Department prior to Trump’s calls with foreign leaders. Trump’s one of the election campaign promises was to declare China a currency manipulator. Trump said in two posts. “And I think for him to not take a congratulatory call would in and of itself be considered a snub”.

China is peeved as this is the first time a US President-elect has directly spoken to Taiwanese President as Washington follows the One-China policy though it maintains military and political contacts with the breakaway province.