Trump renews defence of Taiwan call
Carson accepts offer to head housing dept
NEW YORK, Dec 5, (Agencies): President-elect Donald Trump is using Twitter to renew his defense of his engagement with the leader of Taiwan, a breach of diplomatic protocol as the US shifted recognition from Taiwan to China nearly 40 years ago.
In a series of Sunday evening tweets, Trump groused about criticism that he didn’t work with China ahead of the contact. China considers Taiwan a rogue province.
“Did China ask us if it was OK to carry out a number of actions such as build up disputed islands in the South China Sea or take economic measures hurtful to the United States,” Trump tweeted.
The Taiwanese leader, Tsai Ing Wen, called Trump Friday to congratulate him on the election in communication arranged by an American third party. Taiwan’s official Central News Agency, citing anonymous sources on Saturday, said that Edwin Feulner, founder of the Washington-based Heritage Foundation, was a “crucial figure” in setting up communication channels between the sides.
The call prompted an understated complaint from China to the US government. Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Saturday that the contact was “just a small trick by Taiwan” that he believed would not change US policy toward China, according to Hong Kong’s Phoenix TV.
“The one-China policy is the cornerstone of the healthy development of China-US relations and we hope this political foundation will not be interfered with or damaged,” Wang was quoted as saying. Chinese officials said they lodged a complaint with the US and reiterated a commitment to seeking “reunification” with the island, which they consider a renegade province.
The call was the starkest example yet of how Trump has flouted diplomatic conventions since he won the Nov 8 election. He has apparently undertaken calls with foreign leaders without guidance customarily given by the State Department, which oversees US diplomacy.
“President-elect Trump is just shooting from the hip, trying to take phone calls of congratulatory messages from leaders around the world without consideration for the implications,” said Bonnie Glaser, senior adviser for Asia at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
Vice-President-elect Mike Pence said Sunday that the phone call shouldn’t necessarily be interpreted as a shift in US policy. He shrugged off the attention to the incident as media hype.
“It was a courtesy call,” Pence told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
But other Trump supporters suggested the move was calculated.
“I think it was a terrific message to them that we’re no longer going to be pushovers, and there’s going to be consequences for their hostile and aggressive actions,” California Republican Rep Dana Rohrabacher, who says he is under consideration to become the next secretary of state, told Fox News on Monday.
Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, a presidential rival-turned-supporter, has accepted US President-elect Donald Trump’s nomination to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Trump’s transition team said on Monday.
Carson, a popular writer and speaker in conservative circles, has been a close adviser to Trump since he dropped out of the 2016 Republican presidential primary contest and he is a vice chairman of Trump’s transition team.
Trump discussed the job with Carson before the Thanksgiving Day holiday last month, although Carson had indicated reluctance to take a position in the incoming administration because of his lack of experience in federal government.
The president-elect, who also has no government experience and has never held public office, expressed confidence Carson could do the job.
“Ben Carson has a brilliant mind and is passionate about strengthening communities and families within those communities,” Trump said in a statement.
The transition team described Carson as “a distinguished national leader who overcame his troubled youth in the inner city of Detroit to become a renowned neurosurgeon.”
Carson said he was honored to accept the post. “I feel that I can make a significant contribution particularly by strengthening communities that are most in need,” he said in the statement.
Carson, 65, is the first African-American picked for a Cabinet spot by Trump, who takes office on Jan 20 and has been gradually filling out his administration since beating Democrat Hillary Clinton in the Nov 8 presidential election. The position requires confirmation by the US Senate.
Carson, a highly respected neurosurgeon at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, had been considered for US surgeon general and head of Health and Human Services Department.
His business manager, Armstrong Williams, said last month that Carson had decided not serve in Trump’s administration because “his life has not prepared him to be a Cabinet secretary.” But Carson said after meeting with Trump he believed he could make a contribution.