Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and US president-elect Donald Trump yesterday agreed to meet “at an early date” to discuss the relationship between their two nations, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said yesterday.
In a telephone call, Xi told Trump — who frequently savaged Beijing on the campaign trail and threatened to impose a 45 percent tariff on Chinese-made goods — that the world’s top two economies “need cooperation and there are a lot of things we can cooperate on,” CCTV reported.
Xi and Trump “vowed to keep close contact, build good working relations and meet at an early date to exchange views on issues of mutual interest and the development of bilateral ties,” CCTV said.
Before his election, Trump went as far as calling the Asian giant the US’ “enemy,” accused it of artificially lowering its currency to boost exports and pledged to stand up to a country he said views the US as a pushover.
He has vowed to pursue a policy of “peace through strength” and build up the US Navy.
However, he also indicated he is not interested in getting involved in far-off squabbles, and decried the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free-trade deal — which encompasses several other Asian countries and has been seen as an effort to bolster US influence — as a threat to US jobs.
CCTV cited Trump as saying in the call that China was a large and important nation that he was willing to work with, and that he believed Sino-US relations could realize “win-win” benefits.
The phrasing the broadcaster attributed to Trump is typical of Chinese diplomacy.
In a statement, Trump’s office confirmed the call and said that “the leaders established a clear sense of mutual respect for one another.”
Trump “stated that he believes the two leaders will have one of the strongest relationships for both countries moving forward,” it added.
Trump’s contrary and ambiguous positions have left a pall of uncertainty over how he will manage the relationship between the world’s two largest economies and its biggest and most powerful militaries.
An editorial in the often nationalistic Global Times newspaper yesterday warned that China would “take countermeasures” if Washington levied tariffs, saying that “making things difficult for China politically will do him no good.”
Beijing would use a “tit-for-tat approach” and target US autos, aircraft, soybeans and iPhones, it said, adding that China could limit the large number of students it sends to US schools.
Under US President Barack Obama, Washington’s foreign policy “pivot” toward Asia was viewed with alarm in Beijing, which saw it as an attempt to contain its growing geopolitical and economic might.
However, Trump has offered no clear prescriptions for the strategic issues that plague ties between the two powers, from the future of Taiwan to Beijing’s territorial claims in the South China Sea and North Korea’s nuclear program.
He has also indicated the US has had enough of paying to defend allies, such as Japan and South Korea, even suggesting they should develop their own nuclear weapons.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
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