VP-Elect Mike Pence Says Trump Simply Engaged in ���Courtesy Call��� with Taiwan President
President-elect Donald Trump had a conversation with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen this past Friday, and much of the world seems to have lost its mind about it.
Tsai placed the call to Trump to formally congratulate him on winning the presidential election. By accepting it, the next occupant of the White House drove China bonkers, and, in a matter of just a couple of days, has faced a great deal of criticism from a variety of sources for what is seen as an unfortunate breach of protocol.
When the United States re-established diplomatic relations with mainland China 37 years ago ��� a decision made by then-President Jimmy Carter ��� Taiwan, of course, became the casualty. Since then, mainland China became the only China, diplomatically-speaking, as far as the United States was concerned. Somewhat complicating matters, however, is that, despite the formal recognition of Beijing since that time, America has continued to sell arms to Taiwan in the interest of supporting and protecting another democratic regime.
The continued, unofficial relations with Taiwan on the part of the United States, to include the regular, ongoing sales of arms, has kept the United States in somewhat of a peculiar position vis-��-vis its official diplomatic posture with respect to the People���s Republic. Although the relationship is ideally seen by mainland China as in keeping with a ���One-China��� policy, the open, ongoing association with Taiwan means that the U.S. is not genuinely adhering to a One-China policy, and that has served as a regular source of irritation for the Chinese.
And Trump���s Friday conversation with Tsai, of course, in no way helped.
Mike Pence, the Vice President-elect, appearing Sunday on NBC���s Meet the Press, downplayed the significance of his boss���s interaction with the Taiwanese president, referring to the exchange as simply a ���courtesy call.���
Pence also pointed out that Trump engaged in a similar call with Chinese President Xi Jinping just after the November 8 election.
For his part, Trump himself took great issue with Beijing���s objections, combatively tweeting the following messages in succession on Sunday afternoon:
���Did China ask us if it was OK to devalue their currency (making it hard for our companies to compete), heavily tax our products going into..���
���their country (the U.S. doesn���t tax them) or to build a massive military complex in the middle of the South China Sea? I don���t think so!���
By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large
