The political fallout from US president-elect Donald Trump’s telephone call with President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) continued, as some critics said Trump could be paving the way to an alteration of decades of US foreign policy.
The conversation, which took place on Friday and lasted for a little more than 10 minutes, was the first publicly reported call between a Taiwanese leader and a US president or president-elect since 1979, when Washington switched recognition from Taipei to Beijing.
“This may make for great reality TV, but it doesn’t make for great leadership in a divided world,” one Democratic member of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee said.
The US senator, Chris Coons of Delaware, said it was “concerning” that Trump’s way of governing might mirror the “shoot from the hip style” in which he campaigned for the White House.
Trump must decide whether he would continue to get “into Twitter fights or take unscheduled calls from foreign leaders in ways that break with decades of precedent,” Coons said.
The alternative is for Trump to rely “on the advice of career professionals and the US Department of State, and make moves in a calculated and thoughtful way,” he said.
Hours after Trump’s call became public knowledge on Friday, the Chinese government issued a complaint.
“We have noticed relevant reports and lodged solemn representation with the relevant side in the United States,” Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Geng Shuang (耿爽) said in a statement.
“I must point out that there is only one China in the world and Taiwan is an inseparable part of the Chinese territory... The ‘one China’ principle is the political foundation of China-US relations,” he said.
Christopher Hill, former US assistant secretary of state for east Asia and Pacific affairs under former US president George W. Bush, said Trump had broken a 40-year tradition in one clear policy related to China.
“Obviously, it was an example of what is all too often happening now with this incoming administration, this tendency to wing it,” Hill told CNN on Friday evening.
US Senator Chris Murphy, another Democrat on the committee, criticized Trump in a series of tweets late on Friday.
“Foreign policy consistency is a means, not an end. It’s not sacred. Thus, it’s Trump’s right to shift policy, alliances, strategy,” Murphy wrote.
The US’ allies would “have no clue” what the nation stands for if the conversation did not represent a genuine change in foreign policy, but simply a temporary deviation at Trump’s behest, he added.
In his defense, Trump tweeted: “Interesting how the US sells Taiwan billions of dollars of military equipment but I should not accept a congratulatory call.”
His transition team described the conversation in a statement as a discussion “of the close economic, political and security ties that exist between Taiwan and the United States,” in which Trump also congratulated Tsai on her election earlier this year.
The Presidential Office in Taipei characterized the phone call as an “intimate and relaxed conversation” that lasted 10 minutes.
A statement posted on the government Web site said Trump and Tsai broached topics including the domestic economy and national defense, and “allowing the people better lives and a guarantee of security.”
“The two briefly exchanged opinions on the situation in the Asia region,” the statement read.
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