Taiwan News
Date: 2016/12/05
By: Sophia Yang, Taiwan News, Staff Writer
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump confirmed a brief phone conversation with “the President of
A member of a Chinese honor guard stands with a flag at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2016. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Taiwan” in a Twitter post Friday evening and sparked a backlash against both Trump and Taiwan among Chinese media, including the Communist Party-sponsored Huanqiu website, an outlet of the People’s Daily, which has threatened to “punish Taiwan by snatching away a few of its last remaining diplomatic allies and let Tsai Ing-wen pay the price,” in an editorial published on Sunday.
The 10-minute phone call is the first of its kind since the U.S. severed diplomatic ties with Taiwan in 1979.
On Saturday, Beijing first reacted to news of the call with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi saying the call was nothing but “a small trick by Taiwan” and “is not going to change the longstanding one-China policy acknowledged by international society.”
In an English editorial run by the state-funded news agency China Daily on Sunday, the call is considered to have exposed “his (Trump’s) and his transition team’s inexperience in dealing with foreign affairs.” The article continued to say that Trump will have to “recognize the significance of prudently and appropriately addressing these sensitive issues after being inaugurated,” as he is to shoulder the responsibility of safeguarding the interests of the United States, which “includes a healthy relationship with China.” With that, “he cannot afford to damage the one-China policy,” the article read. [FULL STORY]
