Trump backs ‘One China’ tenet
Strained ties back on track after phone call
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump told President Xi Jinping of China on Thursday evening that the United States would honour the One China policy, reversing his earlier expressions of doubt about the longtime diplomatic understanding and removing a major source of tension between the two countries.
In a statement, the White House said Mr Trump and Mr Xi “discussed numerous topics and President Trump agreed, at the request of President Xi, to honour our One China policy”. It described the call as “extremely cordial” and said the leaders had invited each other to visit.
The concession was clearly designed to put an end to an extended chill in the relationship between China and the US.
Mr Xi, stung by Mr Trump’s unorthodox telephone call with the president of Taiwan in December and his subsequent assertion that the US might no longer abide by the One China policy, had not spoken to Mr Trump since Nov 14, the week after he was elected.
Administration officials concluded Mr Xi would take a call only if Mr Trump committed to upholding the 44-year-old policy, under which the US recognised a single Chinese government and severed its diplomatic ties with Taiwan.
The Chinese state news media said Mr Trump had “stressed that he fully understood the great importance for the US government to respect the One China policy” and that “the US government adheres to the One China policy”.
Chinese media also said the two leaders had agreed on the “necessity and urgency of strengthening cooperation between China and the United States” and noted that Beijing wants to work with Washington on a range of issues, including the economy and trade, science, energy, communications and global stability.
On Thursday, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met officials at the White House to discuss issuing a statement.
His i nvolvement was noteworthy because he had pledged, in written answers to questions after his Senate confirmation hearing, to uphold the One China policy.
Mr Tillerson specifically rejected the idea, advanced by Mr Trump, that Taiwan be used as a bargaining chip in a broader negotiation with China on trade, security and other issues.
On Wednesday, the White House sent a letter from Mr Trump to Mr Xi wishing him a happy Chinese New Year, which administration officials described as an effort to keep the relationship between the countries from unravelling further while they sought to resolve the tensions.
Relations between Washington and Beijing had been frozen since December, when Mr Trump took a congratulatory phone call from Taiwan’s president, Tsai Ing-wen. The US has not had diplomatic relations with Taiwan since 1979. Mr Trump defended the call by saying he did not know why the United States should be bound by the One China policy.
To lay the groundwork for a better relationship, Mr Trump’s national security adviser, Michael Flynn, spoke on Friday last week with China’s top foreign policy official, Yang Jiechi. That call produced only a vague commitment to “reinforce high-level exchanges”, suggesting that Mr Trump’s statements on China sill precluded a direct leader-to-leader exchange.
As a gesture of conciliation, Mr Flynn and his deputy, KT McFarland, handdelivered Mr Trump’s letter to China’s ambassador to the US, Cui Tiankai.
Mr Trump wrote that he wished “the Chinese people a happy Lantern Festival and prosperous Year of the Rooster”. He also said he “looks forward to working with President Xi to develop a constructive relationship that benefits both the United States and China”.
But there were indications that the administration recognised it needed to do more. Mr Tillerson, officials said, suggested Mr Trump publicly reaffirm his commitment to the One China policy as a way of breaking the deadlock and getting the two presidents back on the phone.
For Mr Trump, it was a significant reversal. In an interview with Fox News in December he said the policy should be contingent on extracting concessions from Beijing. “We’re being hurt very badly by China with devaluation; with taxing us heavy at the borders when we don’t tax them; with building a massive fortress in the middle of the South China Sea, which they shouldn’t be doing and, frankly, with not helping us at all with North Korea,” he said.
Since his inauguration, Mr Trump has spoken by phone with about 20 world leaders. Although these are usually highly scripted affairs, Mr Trump’s have been anything but.
His conversation last week with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull of Australia turned contentious when Mr Turnbull urged Mr Trump to honour an agreement made under previous president Barack Obama to accept 1,250 refugees from an offshore detention centre.
But arguably, no bilateral relationship is more important than the one between Beijing and Washington.
The fact that Mr Trump and Mr Xi had not talked since Mr Trump took office in January had drawn increasing scrutiny.
“The US-China relationship only works if the two leaders have a serious relationship and use their contact to do real business,” said Evan Medeiros, who was senior director for Asia on the National Security Council under Mr Obama.
“Given the rigidity of the Chinese system, leader-level contact provides essential stability, direction and momentum to US-China ties,” Mr Medeiros added.