Irking Beijing again, the US President-elect Donald Trump on Sunday said that America does not have to necessarily follow the "One China" policy, which recognises the People's Republic of China as one nation including Taiwan.
In a move which is likely to antagonise China, Trump questioned the policy followed by the United Nations for nearly four decades. The president-elect had also broken a 37-year precedent earlier this month by engaging in a conversation with the Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen. The precedent limits direct talks between a US president or president-elect and the leader of Taiwan, an island state off the Chinese coast.
No US president has spoken directly to a Taiwanese leader ever since former president Jimmy Carter announced full diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China in 1979 and ended relations with Taiwan. China considers Taiwan a renegade province.
Trump made the fresh statement against the "One China" policy on Fox News Sunday. He has been very vocal about his criticism of China's economic policies, its activities in the South China Sea and the nation's failure to rein in North Korea. Trump also said that he did not want China dictating him whether to answer a leader's call or not.
"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.
"I don't want China dictating to me and this was a call put into me. It was a very nice call. Short. And why should some other nation be able to say I can't take a call?" Trump said in reference to the Taiwanese president's call to him.
"I think it actually would've been very disrespectful, to be honest with you, not taking it," Trump added.
Soon after Trump's statements, Chinese media on Monday said that the "One China" policy is "non-negotiable" and that ignoring it and strengthening relations with Taiwan will lead to Beijing supporting US enemies.
"The 'One China' policy cannot be traded," an unsigned online commentary in the nationalistic Global Times read. It also called the president-elect "as ignorant of diplomacy as a child". The commentary also stated that if US support's Taiwan's independence and increases the sale of arms in the region then China could help "forces hostile to the US".
"Why couldn't we publicly support them, or secretly sell arms to them?" the commentary in Global Times stated.
