John Minchillo / AP
President-elect Donald Trump took the highly unusual step Friday of speaking directly with the president of Taiwan in a phone call, a move that prompted reassurances from the White House since it could anger China.
According to a readout of the call provided by Trump's transition team, the president-elect spoke with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen and noted the two nation's "close economic, political and security ties."
"President-elect Trump also congratulated President Tsai on becoming President of Taiwan earlier this year," the statement read.
Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen.
Chiang Ying-ying / AP
The US cut diplomatic ties with Taiwan in 1979, adopting a "one China" policy, giving recognition instead to communist Beijing. However, China-US relations have remained strained since the the United States maintains a close unofficial relationship with the self-governing island.
The US has no embassy in Taipei, but Taiwan keeps government representatives in Washington DC and other cities.
Still, there hasn't been direct contact between the leaders of Taiwan and the US since 1979 for fear that it could be seen as legitimizing the political leadership of an island that China has said it would take back by force.
Taiwan split from the mainland during a civil war in 1949.
China's embassy did not immediately release a statement.
The call was first reported by the Financial Times, which noted that it was not clear whether the phone call was part of a broader strategy and change the US policy toward Taiwan and China, or if the call was made without consideration of the possible political blowback.
In a tweet Friday, Trump insisted that Tsai was the one who made the call.
Trump has repeatedly blasted China on the campaign trail, accusing it of currency manipulation and criticizing the Obama administration for not being "tough enough" in dealing with the country.
After the phone call, the White House National Security Council released a statement to several news outlets stating that there was no change to is "one China" policy, which recognizes the mainland government.
"There is no change to our longstanding policy to cross-Strait issues," National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said in the statement. "Our fundamental interest is in peaceful and stable cross-Strait relations."
The Los Angeles Times reported that despite Trump's continuous contact with foreign leaders, the White House has not been getting direct reports from his team about the details of the communications. At times, the paper reported, the White House has learned about the contact from statements made by the foreign governments.
Source BuzzFeed - Politics http://ift.tt/2gQlvDP
0 comments:
Post a Comment