Trump adviser on Taiwan call: ‘If China doesn’t like it, screw ’em’

Since the 1970s, the USA has enjoyed an amicable relationship with China – meaning it has “non-diplomatic” relations with Taiwan.

Taiwan has been self-governing since 1949 when Nationalist forces fled to the island after defeat by Mao Zedong’s communists in China’s civil war.

Following the call, reports emerged that Tsai was going to make a short stop in New York City on her way to the South American countries of Guatemala and El Salvador early next month.

“The whole world knows about the Chinese government’s position on the Taiwan issue”.

An economic adviser to President-elect Donald Trump said Monday that he was glad Trump had spoken on the phone with the president of the Taiwan.

U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said he had no information to announce about whether Tsai would meet U.S. officials if she stopped in transit. Which I don’t think is a bad thing.

Maybe Trump is merely doubling down on a minor mistake, his conversation with the Taiwan president, and in the process causing more serious problems.

“Such overreaction is unnecessary and is also not conducive to the normal development of (Taiwan-China) relations”, Huang was quoted as saying by Taiwan’s official Central News Agency.

Trump, who vowed during his campaign he would label China a currency manipulator, continued some of his hard-line rhetoric on Sunday.

China on Monday said it “lodged a stern protest” to US President-elect Donald Trump over his telephone call to Taiwanese leader but declined to comment on his tweets over currency devaluation by Beijing and construction of “massive military complex” in the disputed South China Sea. “I don’t think so!”

Some China analysts see Trump as taking a stand on a different path from President Barack Obama in an effort to signal that the USA intends to compete with Beijing on economic issues.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry has reiterated the One-China policy after Taiwan leader Tsai Ing-wen had reportedly planned to transit in the USA on her way to visit Nicaragua. “It’s a way to be able to state your case that China can’t take the jobs”.

Tsai belongs to the Democratic Progressive Party, which officially backs independence for Taiwan.

Trump responded to an official complaint from China, as well criticism inside the US government, for the unauthorized call, asking if China has asked the United States for permission before some of the actions it has taken – rattling many in the foreign policy community.

Pence called the uproar over the call with “democratically elected” Tsai a “tempest in a teapot”.

Mr. Earnest pointed out that this policy has been in place for nearly four decades, under Republican and Democratic administrations, but he was unsure of whether Mr. Trump would continue with it.

At first, some members of the transition team appropriately downplayed the call.

The speculation was triggered after a report in a local newspaper, considered close to the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, said on Monday (5 December) that President Tsai was planning to transit in NY on her way to Guatemala, Nicaragua and El Salvador – Taiwan’s diplomatic allies.