New York—President-elect Donald Trump broke with decades of cautious US diplomacy Friday to speak with the president of Taiwan, at the risk of provoking a serious rift with China.
It was not immediately clear whether Trump’s telephone call with President Tsai Ing-wen marked a deliberate pivot away from Washington’s official “One China” stance.
But the call itself will incense Beijing – the target of much bombastic rhetoric during Trump’s election campaign – and fuel fears that he is improvising an ad hoc foreign policy.
China regards self-ruling Taiwan as part of its own territory awaiting reunification under Beijing’s rule, and any US move that would imply support for independence would trigger fury.
Trump and Tsai noted “the close economic, political and security ties” between Taiwan and the United States, according to the president-elect’s office.
“President-elect Trump also congratulated President Tsai on becoming President of Taiwan earlier this year,” it said.
As he came under fire for the move, Trump later took the unusual step of defending directly on Twitter the highly sensitive diplomatic subject of his decision to speak with Tsai.
He first tweeted that Tsai initiated the call, one of several he has had with world leaders in recent days, and brushed off criticism for speaking directly with the leader.
“Interesting how the U.S. sells Taiwan billions of dollars of military equipment but I should not accept a congratulatory call,” Trump wrote in a second tweet sent an hour after the first one.
Tsai told Trump she “hopes the US can continue to support Taiwan in opportunities to participate and contribute to international issues,” and called his hard-fought election victory “admirable,” her office said in a statement.
China—the target of much bombastic rhetoric during Trump’s election campaign – labeled the call a “ploy by the Taiwan side that simply cannot change… the One China framework.”
“I do not think it will change the one-China policy that the US government has insisted on applying over the years,” Foreign Minister Wang Yi told Hong Kong’s Phoenix TV, in a muted response.
“The One China principle is the cornerstone of the healthy development of Sino-US relations, and we do not want any interference or disappearance of this political foundation.”
President Barack Obama’s White House said the outgoing US administration had not changed its stance.
“There is no change to our longstanding policy on cross-Strait issues,” National Security Council spokeswoman Emily Horne told reporters after news of the call broke.
“We remain firmly committed to our ‘One China’ policy,” she added. “Our fundamental interest is in peaceful and stable cross-Strait relations.”
Washington cut formal diplomatic relations with the island in 1979 and recognizes Beijing as the sole government of China—while keeping friendly non-official ties with Taipei.
But since coming to office this year, Tsai has refused to accept the “One China” concept, prompting Beijing to cut off all official communication with the island’s new government.
Tsai’s Democratic Progressive Party government (DPP) defeated the Kuomintang (KMT), which had much friendlier ties with Beijing, in a landslide election victory in January.
