Ex-Sen. Dole facilitated Trump call with Taiwan’s leader

The Trump camp insists Trump has been fully briefed on the implications of a change in Taiwan policy, but his tweets suggest the only part of the briefing he really heard was, “The Chinese leaders don’t want you to talk to Tsai Ing-wen”. But we should not assume that all the missteps by the petulant president-in-waiting are down to ignorance: they aren’t. Bob Dole that connected members of Donald Trump’s staff with Taiwan officials.

Thus, the phone call between the President-elect and the President of Taiwan (herself a graduate of Cornell Law School) was not only a courtesy call but also a strong expression of support for what Taiwan is perceived to represent to this type of politician in the USA – a democratic nation in the shadow of an atheist bully. Bolton is known for his extreme right-wing views.

“It’s fair to say that we had some influence”, Dole said. There are also reports that the Trump family is interested in a stake in the lucrative Taoyuan Aerotropolis project. He was the first U.S. leader to speak to a Taiwanese leader for 40 years, since the United States normalized diplomatic relations with Beijing as the capital of “one China”. We don’t know if Trump is contemplating unintended consequences. The Chinese chose the first option.

In the past, restrictions on United States officials’ interactions with Taiwanese counterparts have led to miscommunication and misunderstanding. It wasn’t that hard to envisage Chinese strongman Xi Jinping going for the “Crimea option” at some point.

“They are used to thinking that all foreign policies are as carefully planned as theirs”, she explains. By then, it will no longer be possible to wait and see. Once again, the Chinese leadership was caught flat-footed. Will the President-elect stand up for Taiwan when that happens? They have noted that he posted a video of his grand-daughter reciting a poem in Mandarin.

Trump’s transition team has sent mixed messages about the call with Tsai, whether it was meant as a mere gesture of goodwill or a provocation aimed at drawing Taiwan closer to the United States as a way of challenging China, which considers Taiwan a breakaway province.

But what is the reality? The unrest put the brakes on a trade bill that, critics charged, went too far in opening sensitive local industries, like the media, to mainland-Chinese investment. Two, prices in the United States would rise undermining consumption, impeding economic growth and exacerbating inequality.

Still, he may well have done so at the wrong time and in the wrong place, by challenging the One China policy that has been the hallmark of U.S. In particular, relations with China emerged as a major question as many wondered what the fate of relations would be and what would become of bilateral relations. Another week, another Trump-induced freak out. The threat assessment has changed in the past year or two, and there is a growing consensus that this issue will need to be addressed under the next administration through a redoubling of deterrence measures, sanctions and diplomacy.

Trump has a personal and political agenda that are far from the clueless caricatures that puncture his wafer-thin skin. He is no ordinary American president. This was an instance where the press needed to take the Republican nominee seriously as well as literally.

Ultimately, the issues raised by China’s challenging the status-quo in Asia are a timeless problem: when a rising power seeks to undo the global system and perks of an established power and its allies and partners. That created the prospect of a rift at a time when the US needs Chinese help in dealing with one of the world’s most threatening situations, North Korea’s drive to attain the long-range rocket capacity to launch a nuclear weapon toward the U.S. Both Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton had flaws, he said. One, in the near term, lies in the nature of Mr Trump’s team.

But some prominent Chinese intellectuals are already calling for Beijing to take a much harsher position toward the incoming Trump administration.