BARGAINING CHIP?President Tsai Ing-wen said her administration would be able to handle the nation’s place in US-China relations and ‘put Taiwan’s interests first’
Taipei Times
Date: Jan 15, 2017
By: Reuters
US president-elect Donald Trump said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal that he would not
The national flags of Japan, Taiwan, the US and the Netherlands (L-R) hanging outside the Imperial Hotel Taipei in Taipei yesterday. Diplomatic relations between the United States and the Asian region are expected to change as US President-elect Donald Trump has said that the ‘one China’ policy on Taiwan is up for negotiation under his administration. Photo: EPA
commit to the “one China” policy until he sees progress from Beijing in its currency and trade practices.
In excerpts from the hour-long interview published on Friday, Trump, when asked if he supported the “one China” policy toward Taiwan that has underpinned US relations with Beijing for decades, said: “Everything is under negotiation, including ‘one China.’”
“We sold them [Taiwan] US$2 billion of military equipment last year. We can sell them 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,” Trump said in the interview.
In a previous interview with Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace last month, Trump questioned the need for Washington to stick to its “one China” policy.
“I fully understand the ‘one China’ policy, but I don’t know why we have to be bound by a ‘one China’ policy unless we make a deal with China having to do with other things, including trade,” he said at the time. [FULL STORY]
