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China backlash over Donald Trump comments on Taiwan
State media lash out after US president-elect questions commitment to One China policy
by: Tom Mitchell and Lucy Hornby in Beijing
FINANCIAL TIMES
Chinese state media lashed out at Donald Trump on Monday morning after the US president-elect openly questioned whether his administration would continue to respect the four-decade old “One China” policy.
Mr Trump’s comments, made on Fox News on Sunday, dramatically upped the ante just a week after he broke diplomatic precedent by accepting a phone callfrom Taiwan’s leader, Tsai Ying-wen.
A stinging editorial in the Global Times, the offshoot of the official People’s Daily, urged Mr Trump to “listen clearly, the One China policy cannot be traded”.
“China needs to wage resolute struggle against [Mr Trump],” it added, warning the president-elect that China “cannot be bullied easily”.
Mr Trump’s latest remarks will severely test the patience of the Chinese government, which lodged an official protest over the call with Ms Tsai but was otherwise restrained, urging the incoming administration to respect the principles that have guided Sino-US relations since diplomatic ties were formally re-established in 1979.
There was no immediate reaction from China’s foreign ministry, which holds a daily briefing at 3pm local time. Ms Tsai’s office declined to comment.
The Chinese government has for decades required countries wishing to establish formal diplomatic relations to acknowledge that there is only one China and cut off official ties with Taiwan.
Taiwan has in effect been independent since the Kuomintang party, which ruled China until 1949, fled there after losing to the Communists in China’s civil war. Both sides had since abided by the so-called “1992 consensus” in which they agreed there was only one China but disagreed on who was the country’s rightful representative. Beijing has since accused Ms Tsai, who led the pro-independence Democratic Progressive party to victory in last year’s presidential election, of violating that consensus.
In his remarks on Sunday, however, Mr Trump suggested the One China policy could in fact be treated as a bargaining chip, rather than as the bedrock of relations between the world’s two largest economies. “I don’t know why we have to be bound by the One China policy unless we make a deal with China on other things,” the president-elect said.
The Global Times warned of severe consequences if the incoming US administration dispensed with the one China policy. In that case, the paper asked, “why should the Chinese government prioritise ‘peaceful reunification’ [with Taiwan] over ‘reunification by force’?”
Shen Dingli, professor of international relations at Fudan University in Shanghai, said “Trump’s position is you can trade anything”, adding that the One China policy was often ambiguous. “We keep open trade ties with Taiwan even though we don’t recognise them and even though the US sells arms to them.”
According to Mr Trump, “other things” could include currency policy, Beijing’s military build-up in the South China Sea and improved co-operation in containing North Korea.
“Look, we’re being hurt very badly by China with [currency] devaluation, with taxing us heavy at the borders when we don’t tax them, and building a massive fortress in the middle of the South China Sea,” Mr Trump said. “And frankly, they’re not helping us at all with North Korea.”
China’s currency, the renminbi, strengthened by 30 per cent against the dollar in the decade to 2014, but has since lost about 15 per cent of its value against the greenback.
The International Monetary Fund and most analysts believe the renminbi’s value is largely market-driven, although China’s central bank regularly intervenes to prevent the currency from falling even further against the dollar.
Additional reporting by Archie Zhang in Beijing, Gloria Cheung in Hong Kong and David Lynch in Washington |
