CHINA ROILED AS NEW DAY ‘DONS’
Taiwan call upends 40-year protocol Beijing mad but Republican pols glad
China issued a formal diplomatic protest Saturday after Donald Trump took a call from the president of Taiwan, but congressional Republicans and diplomatic hardliners applauded the Friday phone chat as a clear sign there’s a new sheriff in town.
“Plaudits to president-elect Trump for his historic phone call to Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen,” tweeted Rep. Pete King (R-LI). “Strong message to China. New day in Asia.”
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz chimed in, “I would much rather have Donald Trump talking to President Tsai than to Cuba’s Raul Castro or Iran’s Hasan Rouhani. This is an improvement.”
Former UN Ambassador John Bolton — in the running to become Trump’s secretary of state and someone who was present in Trump Tower on Friday — poohpoohed critics’ worries the call could undo decades of delicate diplomacy and lead to conflict between the superpowers.
“The president of the United States should talk to whomever he wants if he thinks it’s in the interest of the United States, and nobody in Beijing gets to dictate who we talk to,” he told Fox News on Saturday.
Bolton has pushed for closer relations with Taiwan and a tougher American stance against China’s aggressive territorial claims in the South China Sea.
And Trump pointed out that the United States has continued its trade and defense relationships with Taiwan regardless of its official diplomatic status.
“Interesting how the US sells Taiwan billions of dollars of military equipment but I should not accept a congratulatory call,” Trump wrote on Twitter.
Tony Nash, of the data-analysis firm Complete Intelligence, thinks the call is a sign of things to come.
He tweeted: “The Trump Taiwan call put China on defense after it’s played offense w weaker neighbors for years. US policy in Asia will not be status quo.”
Daniel Blumenthal of the American Enterprise Institute, a think tank, believes the phone call will not have much of an effect on relations between the two superpowers.
“‘Experts’ saying China will go ballistic actually have no understanding of China,’’ he tweeted.
There was no immediate public reaction from mainland China’s president, Xi Jinping.
The White House, which was unaware of the phone call ahead of time, said that it changed nothing about the nation’s “longstanding policy” on China and Taiwan.
The call broke nearly 40 years of strictly observed protocol. It was the first direct communication between a Taiwanese and US leader or leader-in-waiting since 1979, when President Jimmy Carter withdrew diplomatic recognition of Taiwan in favor of a US relationship with China.
China sees the island nation as a breakaway province and considers its democratically elected government illegitimate.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry said Saturday that it had lodged “stern representations” with the “relevant US side” — without saying whether that meant the US State Department or the Trump transition team.
In Trump’s 10-minute talk with President Tsai, aides said, the two leaders “noted the close economic, political and security ties . . . between Taiwan and the United States” and congratulated one another on their recent victories.
Tsai, Taiwan’s first female president, was elected in January as a pro-independence candidate.
Trump said on Twitter Friday that Tsai had initiated the call: “The President of Taiwan CALLED ME today to wish me congratulations on winning the Presidency.” But aides to both leaders said the conversation was prearranged.
“Of course both sides agreed ahead of time before making contact,” said a spokesman for Tsai, who was even photographed while speaking to Trump.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi initially made light of the incident despite his government’s later formal objections, dismissing it as “a little trick” on Taiwan’s part.
“This is just the Taiwan side engaging in a petty action and cannot change the ‘ One China’ structure already formed by the international community,” Wang said.
Social-media-fueled rumors that Trump had used the Taiwan call to promote his business interests there were flatly denied by his representatives Saturday, according to The Wall Street Journal.