Trump called Taiwan’s president, risking feud with China
WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump spoke with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen on the phone Friday, a move that risks opening up a major diplomatic dispute with China before Trump has even taken office.
The call from the U.S. president-elect to the leader of Taiwan, a self-governed island that Beijing views as a breakaway province, is believed to be the first such interaction since diplomatic relations between the two were cut in 1979.
The Trump transition team confirmed the call, first revealed by the Financial Times, in a statement Friday afternoon, saying that Tsai “offered her congratulations” for Trump’s victory in the presidential election.
“During the discussion, they noted the close economic, political, and security ties [existing] between Taiwan and the United States,” the release said. “President-elect Trump also congratulated President Tsai on becoming president of Taiwan earlier this year.”
The U.S. has maintained a “one-China policy” since the meeting between President Richard Nixon and Chinese leader Mao Zedong in 1972. President Jimmy Carter formally recognized Beijing as the sole government of China in 1978, and the U.S. Embassy in Taipei closed the following year.
Trump regularly lambasted American policies toward China on the campaign trail, particularly on trade.
“We can’t continue to allow China to rape our country,” Trump said during a May 2016 campaign rally in Indiana.
The call earned quick rebukes from Trump’s political rivals. Jessica Mackler, the president of liberal group American Bridge, said in a written statement that the development proves Trump is “dangerously incapable of keeping the United States safe.”
“Everything we feared about Donald Trump wreaking havoc is coming true,” Mackler said.
Earlier Friday, China expressed concerns that an annual U.S. defense spending bill includes suggestions that the country should plan to conduct high-level military exchanges with Taiwan.
China has “serious concerns” about the legislation, foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said, urging the U.S. to “scrupulously abide” by traditional policy or risk damaging relations.
“China firmly opposes the United States and Taiwan carrying out any form of official contact or military exchange,” Geng told reporters at a briefing, hours before the reports of Trump’s call to the Taiwanese president.
Trump also invited Rodrigo Duterte, president of the Philippines, to the White House next year in a phone call between the two Friday.
Duterte has earned a reputation as a volatile, outspoken leader since taking office five months ago. He has launched an unprecedented war on drugs that local police estimate has led to the deaths of more than 3,500 people.
Facing concerns from President Barack Obama about human rights abuses, Duterte referred to the American leader as a “son of a whore” and told him to “go to hell.”