‘Rookie’ Trump must fall into line: China media

Donald Trump on the phone. It probably won’t be a barrier to relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and could even be an advantage when dealing with President Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines.

Kevin Rudd and and China’s Xi Jinping in 2010.

China needs more nuclear weapons to deal with Donald Trump should the U.S. treat Beijing unacceptably, according to a government mouthpiece newspaper.

Aides to President-elect Donald Trump say that his precedent-shattering phone call with Taiwanese leader Tsai Ing-wen on Friday was not a diplomatic blunder but a deliberate move to signal resolve against China.

NORTHAM: Beijing considers Taiwan nothing more than a renegade province and refuses to recognize it. “China will not take it lightly”, the paper said.

President-elect Trump’s initiative to speak to the Taiwan President is in sharp contrast with the policy adopted by President Obama and earlier Presidents.

Then there is the style.

But after Trump hit back on Twitter by pointing out the seemingly illogical convention that will give him power as president to sell arms to Taiwan but not talk to its leader, the consensus began to shift. There is very little spontaneity or any shooting from the hip. Trump’s campaign manager Kellyanne Conway brushed off the incident on Fox News yesterday.

Trump sent out two tweets Sunday blasting China for devaluing its currency, taxing United States imports, and building military installations in the South China Sea.

It prompted a diplomatic protest from China which the outgoing Obama administration warned could undermine progress in relations with Beijing, which has been carefully built up over decades by both Republican and Democratic administrations.

“Before China could assume its tough rhetoric would be taken as tough rhetoric, but Trump has shown he does not take rhetorical slights lightly”, said Xie. “What I’m concerned about is that rather than acknowledge a mistake, they will double down on it”.

Beijing has filed an official complaint over Trump’s deviation from the “one China” narrative that the us has upheld for decades.

While U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s conversation with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen has made worldwide headlines, late-night U.S. talk show hosts had shown no hesitation in exploiting the story.

“We’ve had a failed policy for eight years with China”. “To sustain such momentum, the two sides need to remain committed to the important principles that led to the establishment of our diplomatic ties”.

But Trump allies and advisers have defended the call.

“By showing strength at the beginning, he may hope to gain advantages in bargaining later with the Chinese on many key issues”, Zhang Baohui, a professor of global relations at Lingnan University in Hong Kong, said of Trump.

“I would definitely love to see that he would retain his outspokenness, especially if he can use it to make a breakthrough in terms of traditional restrictions on Taiwan-US relations”, CNN quoted Freddy as saying.

Missing some content? Care to comment?

Michael Pillsbury, a China adviser to Trump during the campaign who served under Presidents Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush and Obama, said Trump’s call was like numerous dozens he had made and taken since Election Day with world leaders. Trump can’t expect China to push North Korea while he meddles with China’s core interest in Taiwan.

However, China is merely posturing to save face to their people, and these media and diplomatic voices are misinformed and drawing unnecessary attention to a non-story. When Barack Obama was president-elect, he regularly spoke of “reaching out” to entrenched adversaries and dictatorships as part of a new smart diplomacy which would challenge the status quo and offer the hand of friendship from the United States of America seeking new opportunities to solve age old and seemingly intractable problems. But by breaking tradition and talking to the Taiwanese president, Trump has upset this fine balance – and China isn’t happy.

If it comes to it, China could make life hard for the Trump administration.

“Trump’s remarks will certainly raise the concerns of Chinese leaders”, Shi said. China’s response thus far has been restrained.

Even the KMT, now Taiwan’s opposition party, welcomed the move. Trump has threatened to brand China a currency manipulator and slap 45 percent tariffs on the nation’s exports. One way in which it has done so is by being “flexible” in the way that it presents itself.