International News

WASHINGTON, (MILLAT+APP/AFP) – US President Barack
Obama warned his successor Donald Trump on Friday against provoking a “very significant” response from China by reaching out to Taiwan.
Trump has broken with four decades of US diplomacy by suggesting
Washington’s “One China” stance may be reviewed and by accepting a call from
Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen.
Beijing regards self-governing Taiwan as part of its sovereign territory and has already expressed anger at Trump’s move.
Tension between the world’s two greatest powers is running high, as was underlined Thursday when Chinese sailors seized an unmanned US naval probe in the South China Sea.
Obama, who leaves office on January 20 to make way for Trump, has taken a cautious stance with the Asian giant and urged the president-elect to proceed with care.
“The idea of One China is at the heart of their conception as a nation,” he told reporters at an end of year news conference at the White House.
“And so if you are going to upend this understanding, you have to have thought through what the consequences are, because the Chinese will not treat that the way they’ll treat some other issues.
“This goes to the core of how they see themselves, and their reaction on this issue could end up being very significant.”
On Monday, China’s foreign minister Wang Yi warned that Beijing would not allow “any force in the world” to play tough with Beijing over its territorial claims.
In a shot across Trump’s bows, Wang said anyone who “tries to sabotage the One China policy or harm China’s core interests… will lift a rock only to crush his own toes.”
A Chinese spokesman also warned the Taiwanese not to get any ideas,
warning: “Facts will show those people that ‘Taiwan independence’ is a dead
end.”
Since Trump’s declaration, China’s Liaoning aircraft carrier battle group has conducted its first live fire exercises involving dozens of ships and aircraft.
Taiwan’s defense minister, meanwhile, has urged young people to join the armed forces.
Trump took a congratulatory call from Tsai after he won the November 9 US presidential election, one of dozens he received from leaders around the world.
At first it was not clear whether he had done so without realizing that China would see it as an affront or whether it was a deliberate change in
practice by his incoming administration.
But, challenged by critics over his apparently reckless move, Trump doubled down and insisted he would not accept China “dictating” to him over protocol.
And, resuming the attacks on Chinese trade policy he made throughout his campaign, he implied that US support for “One China” would depend on Beijing
making concessions.