Taipei Times
Date: May 02, 2017
By: Staff writer, with CNA

Reuters news agency has apologized to Taiwan over a misunderstanding stemming from last week’s interview with President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), during which she was asked about the possibility of another telephone call with US President Donald Trump, Minister of Foreign Affairs David Lee (李大維) said yesterday.

In the interview, which was published on Thursday with the headline “Taiwan president says phone call with Trump can take place again,” Reuters quoted Tsai as saying that “we don’t exclude the opportunity to call President Trump himself, but it depends on the needs of the situation and the US government’s consideration of regional affairs.”

Trump, in a Reuters interview published on Friday with the headline “Trump spurns Taiwan president’s suggestion of another phone call,” said that he does not want to create problems for Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) when Beijing appears to be helping efforts to rein in North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs.

Trump’s response has been described as a “slap in the face” to Tsai, and some Taiwanese have criticized the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which arranged the interview, as having poor judgement and allowing itself to be “set up” by the news agency.    [FULL  STORY]