Trump launches fresh blast at China after Taiwan call

Trump’s incoming vice president, Mike Pence, however, played down the call’s significance, describing it as a courtesy.

Trump tweeted that Tsai had called him but Taiwan’s Presidential spokesman Alex Huang told CNN that both sides agreed ahead of time before making contact, but would not give any further details including exactly when they agreed to the call. Trump said in a series of tweets.

If Trump challenges the basis of the One China policy “at the same time that he places pressure on China over trade, we could be heading for a very rough road”, said Malcolm Davis, a senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute in Canberra.

Trump’s phone conversation Friday with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen broke almost four decades of sensitive US policy toward China.

A story in The Washington Post paints Trump’s phone call with Taiwan as a deliberate provocation planned months in advance. “He’s begun the relationship there.

Some of the progress that we have made in our relationship with China could be undermined by this issue flaring up”, he said.The call with Taipei was the first by a USA president-elect or president with a Taiwan leader since President Jimmy Carter switched diplomatic recognition to China from Taiwan in 1979, acknowledging Taiwan as part of “one China”.

Jon Huntsman, reportedly among the candidates to become Trump’s secretary of state, was quoted by The New York Times as saying at the weekend that Taiwan might prove a “useful leverage point” in dealings with China. “They reached out to offer congratulations as leaders around the world have”, he said.

The proper handling of the Taiwan issue, he said, “is an important political pre-condition that has helped ensure the continual and healthy development of U.S”.

Trump has vowed to formally declare China a “currency manipulator” on the first day of his presidency, which would oblige the US Treasury to open negotiations with Beijing on allowing the renminbi to rise.

The offshore yuan traded in Hong Kong fell 0.2 percent to 6.8835 per dollar, taking its decline since Trump’s surprise presidential-election victory to 1.2 percent.

“But we need to make our position and attitude very clear”, Lu said.

China is already irked with Taiwan for speaking to the U.S. president-elect over the telephone last week.

Trump dismissed the notion that he needed China’s approval to speak with Tsai. Since then, Beijing has been wary of Taipei’s movements, especially where it involves Washington as China regards the self-governing island nation as a renegade province.

He also opposes the Trans Pacific Partnership, which effectively leaves the future trade relationship with China undecided.

The State Department said that the One China Policy has helped build closer relations with China and engage in strong “informal relations” with Taipei for the last 40 years. China reacted by passing an anti-secession law in 2005, claiming it has the right to use “non-peaceful means” against Taiwan if the island asserts its independence. “We focus on his policies, especially his policies toward China”.

Stephen Yates, a former national security aide to Vice President Dick Cheney who has been in touch with Trump advisers, said the call with Tsai was arranged by the transition team and showed the president-elect wants to rebalance the US relationship with China.