United States president-elect Donald Trump's view on the country's long-standing "One China" policy has once again triggered bad blood between America and China. According to Trump, it was not necessary for America to continue with its policy that Taiwan belonged to One China.
In an interview to Fox News network on Dec. 11, Sunday, the U.S. president elect said although he is fully aware of the One China policy and comprehends it appropriately, he failed to understand why the country is bound by it without any deal with China on trade and other issues.
Trump's recent remarks have made some believe that he wants to pressurize to China to grant concessions on trade. The remarks came soon after he took an unfrequented call from the Taiwanese President early this month to discuss various issues, including China.
As expected, this infuriated the Chinese authorities, who lodged an official complaint with the U.S. China is very sensitive on the issue of Taiwan, which it deems to be a renegade province. In fact, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter changed the country's diplomatic recognition of Taiwan in 1979 and acknowledged that the country was a part of One China.
Also, Trump censured China over its currency policies, the Asian nation's activities in the South China Sea as well as its position on North Korea. Antagonizing China further, the U.S. president-elect said Beijing did not have the authority to decide whether or not he should call the Taiwanese leader.
For Trump, China should not dictate terms to him. Stating that the call from the Taiwan president was a very nice and short one, he asked why some other nation should say he should not take a call. "I think it actually would've been very disrespectful, to be honest with you, not taking it," Trump told the interviewer.
Trump also charged China for hurting the U.S. economy by devaluating its currency, imposing heavy taxes on American products at their borders and building a huge fortress in the South China Sea. Aside from emphasizing that China should refrain from these, entire he said the country also did not help the United States with North Korea.
"You have North Korea," Trump said. "You have nuclear weapons and China could solve that problem and they're not helping us at all."
It is likely that Trump is using the Taiwan issue to compel China to bargain with the U.S. over trade, Reuters quoted Wang Yiwei, a professor of international relations at Renim University in Beijing, as saying. According to Yiwei, Trump is trying to strike the best possible trade deal with China with a view to boost the U.S. economy.
It is not impossible for China to prefer a deterioration in its allow the entire relationship with the U.S. with a view to demonstrate its tenacity on the Taiwan issue, the publication quoted Jessica Chen Weiss, an expert in Chinese nationalism and professor of government at Cornell University, as saying. Meanwhile, some analysts in the U.S. have already warned that Trump may incite a military confrontation with China if he persists on the Taiwan issue.
Watch the U.S. president-elect Donald Trump speaking on China's most sensitive issue: