US President Barack Obama on Friday gave one of his most detailed comments to date on US relations with China and Taiwan, saying the ‘status quo,’ although not completely satisfactory, ‘has kept the peace and allowed the Taiwanese to be a pretty successful economy and a people who have a high degree of self-determination.’ The US president also warned of the dangers of ‘upending’ the ‘status quo,’ calling on US president-elect Donald Trump to be fully briefed and think it through before taking a different approach. Obama made the comments at a year-end news conference, likely his last before handing over the presidency to Trump on Jan. 20. The following is the full text of the question and the president’s answer according to a transcript provided by the White House Office of the Press Secretary
Taipei Times
Date: Dec 18, 2016
By: Staff Writer, with CNA
Q: Your successor spoke by phone with the president of Taiwan the other day and
US President Barack Obama speaks on Friday at a year-end news conference held in the White House in Washington. PHOTO: AFP
declared subsequently that he wasn’t sure why the United States needed to be bound by the ‘one China’ policy. He suggested it could be used as a bargaining chip perhaps to get better terms on a trade deal or more cooperation on North Korea.
There’s already evidence that tensions between the two sides have increased a bit, and just today, [Friday] the Chinese have evidently seized an underwater drone in the South China Sea.
Do you agree, as some do, that our China policy could use a fresh set of eyes? And what’s the big deal about having a short phone call with the president of Taiwan? Or do you worry that these types of unorthodox approaches are setting us on a collision course with perhaps our biggest geopolitical adversary? [FULL STORY]
