For Trump, one China, like everything, is negotiable
There will be no trade talks, only confrontation with Beijing, if he abandons policy, analysts say
US president-elect Donald Trump has demonstrated his determination to force China to concede on trade using the one-China policy as leverage, despite Beijing’s protests and warnings over the past weeks, analysts said.
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal published on Friday, Trump said he would not honour the US commitment that Taiwan was not to be recognised diplomatically, unless he saw what he considered progress from Beijing in its currency and trade practices. “Everything is under negotiation, including ‘one China’,” he said.
It was not the first time he had challenged the US policy that Taiwan is part of China. Last month he said the US would not necessarily be bound by the policy unless Beijing made concessions in other areas like trade.
The one-China policy has been upheld since 1979 when Washington shifted diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to Beijing. In December Trump took a congratulatory phone call from Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, which broke the decades-long diplomatic tradition and caused great concern in Beijing.
“We can sell Taiwan US$2 billion of the latest and greatest military equipment but we’re not allowed to accept a phone call. First of all, it would have been very rude not to accept the phone call,” he said in the interview on Friday.
