Donald Trump questions utility of US recognizing One China policy, hoping to leverage issue to negotiate trade with China
Donald Trump interview on Fox News Sunday December 11, 2016
United States President-Elect Donald Trump expressed a willingness to disregard the People’s Republic of China’s “One China” policy with regard to Taiwan, which calls itself the Republic of China.
“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,” Trump told “Fox News Sunday,” a Sunday morning news program in the United States.
These comments come on the heels of a controversy in which President-elect Donald Trump contacted the President of Taiwan, the first time a sitting US President has done so in 27 years. While Taiwan and the United States maintain close informal ties, the United States official foreign policy stance is to agree with Beijing that Taiwan is part of China and not an independent nation. President-elect Trump also said during the course of the interview that he would not hesitate to antagonize the PRC until it severs ties with North Korea and comes to negotiate “more favorable” trade agreements with the United States.
“I mean, look, we’re being hurt very badly by China with devaluation, with taxing us heavy at the borders when we don’t tax them, with building a massive fortress in the middle of the South China Sea, which they shouldn’t be doing, and frankly with not helping us at all with North Korea. You have North Korea. You have nuclear weapons, and China could solve that problem, and they’re not helping us at all,” Trump said. “So, I don’t want China dictating to me and this was a call put into me. I didn’t make the call, and it was a call, very short call saying ‘congratulations, sir, on the victory.’ It was a very nice call. Short. And why should some other nation be able to say I can’t take a call. I think it actually would’ve been very disrespectful, to be honest with you, not taking it.”
[CNN – Trump: US doesn’t ‘have to be bound’ by ‘one China’ policy]