China’s Foreign Ministry on Monday warned that any change in the one-China policy, if pursued by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, will impair ties between Beijing and Washington.

"Upholding the 'one-China' principle is the political basis for developing China-U.S. ties. If this basis is interfered with or damaged then the healthy development of China-U.S. relations and bilateral cooperation in important areas is out of the question," China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told a daily news briefing on Monday.

Mr. Geng was responding to a spate of queries following a Sunday interview on Fox News by Mr. Trump, where he questioned U.S. persistence with a one-China policy, unless there were concessions from Beijing on trade and other issues.

“I don’t know why we have to be bound by a one-China policy unless we make a deal with China having to do with other things, including trade,” Mr. Trump observed.

He also blamed China for devaluing its currency, and not cooperating with Washington on North Korea and the South China Sea.

The one-China policy underscores recognition of China’s sovereignty over Taiwan — a position that has been held by the United States since 1979.

"China has noted the report and expresses serious concern about it. I want to stress that the Taiwan issue concerns China's sovereignty and territorial integrity, and involves China's core interests," Mr. Geng observed.

Earlier, an editorial in China’s Global Times newspaper, affiliated with the Communist Party of China (CPC), asserted that the one-China policy, recognising Taiwan as a part of China, was non-negotiable. It rebuked the U.S. president-elect for being “as ignorant as a child in terms of foreign policy.”

The daily warned that Beijing would have no reason to “put peace above using force to take back Taiwan” if Mr. Trump retracted from the policy, in place since 1979, which recognises Taiwan as part of China.

In its response, the Global Times made it unambiguous that the one-China policy “is not something that can be negotiated”. It added, “It seems Trump knows only about business. He thinks he can put a price on everything.”

“At that time [after Trump abandons the one-China policy] ... mainland China will put forward a series of decisive new Taiwan policies. We will prove that the United States no longer dominates the Taiwan Strait.”

The daily counselled Mr. Trump to “study foreign affairs humbly”. “He particularly needs to learn what the relationship between China and U.S. is about.”

Some Chinese academics point out that Mr. Trump’s remarks were not driven by the President-elect’s inexperience in foreign policy. “It appears that the remarks were made quite deliberately. Perhaps, Mr. Trump and his team want to make a deal with China, based on the Taiwan issue. But China, cannot make any deal, which questions its sovereignty over Taiwan,” says Liu Zongyi, of the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies when contacted by The Hindu.

Reuters quoted Wang Yiwei, an international relations professor at Beijing’s Renmin University, as saying that Mr. Trump was possibly using the Taiwan issue to try and strike a bargain with the United States over trade. "He wants to get the best possible trade deal with China he can so that he can boost the U.S. economy," he observed.</s>'I don't want China dictating to me,' said Trump as he made a vehement defense of his recent phone conversation with the president of Taiwan. (Photo: AP)

Washington: President-elect Donald Trump questioned in an interview broadcast Sunday whether the United States should continue its "one China policy" unless Beijing makes concessions on trade and other issues, threatening to upend decades of Sino-American diplomacy.

"I don't want China dictating to me," Trump said as he made a vehement defense of his recent phone conversation with the president of Taiwan.

"I don't know why we have to be bound by a one China policy unless we make a deal with China having to do with other things, including trade," he added in the interview with Fox News Sunday.

He was responding to a question about taking a call earlier this month from Tsai Ing-wen, the leader of Taiwan, a self-ruling island that Beijing considers a rogue province awaiting unification.

It was a break from decades of US diplomatic tradition that recognizes Beijing as the sole representative of China, an understanding that has been a cornerstone of the relationship between the countries since Richard Nixon went to China in 1972.

Trump also repeated earlier accusations that China is manipulating its currency, saying "we're being hurt very badly by China with devaluation."

He piled on the criticism in other hot-button areas: "With taxing us at the borders when we don't tax them -- with building a massive fortress in the middle of the South China Sea -- which they shouldn't be doing."

Concerning nuclear weapons, Trump argued that China as North Korea's main patron "could solve that problem."

"Frankly, they're not helping us at all with North Korea," he said.

Trump said it would have been disrespectful not to take the call from Tsai, who he said wanted to congratulate him on his election win.

The real estate magnate said he had had just a couple hours' notice that the call from Taiwan was coming, not weeks or longer as has been reported.

"It was a very nice call. Short. And why should some other nation be able to say I can't take a call?" Trump asked.

Official reaction from Beijing has been muted so far, but state-controlled media have savaged the president-elect.

"Provoking friction and messing up China-US relations won't help 'make America great again,'" read a front-page opinion piece last week in the overseas edition of Communist Party mouthpiece People's Daily.

But Trump has also made moves to assuage Chinese ire by tapping Iowa Governor Terry Branstad -- who has links to Chinese President Xi Jinping dating back to the mid-1980s -- as ambassador to Beijing.

Xi visited Branstad's state in 1985 as the leader of an agricultural research delegation, and the two men have stayed in touch as Xi ascended to the Chinese presidency.

Branstad has overseen the growth of Iowa's farm exports to China, notably soybeans, soar into the billions.

China called the governor "an old friend" after hearing reports of the nomination.

Branstad will likely have to walk a fine line in his new role, experts said.

It is difficult to imagine the United States not taking some sort of trade action against China in 2017, "on currency or subsidies or cyber-theft of intellectual property," said Derek Scissors, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and an expert on US-China relations.

Even if such action is limited, "Branstad would then need to smooth ruffled feathers, where his relationship with Xi should help," Scissors said.</s>PARIS: France’s top diplomat on Wednesday slammed the bullish tone taken by President-elect Donald Trump with key trade ally Beijing in threatening to upend Washington’s One China policy.

“Watch out for China… It’s a big country. You can have disagreements with China but you don’t talk like that to a partner,” remarked French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault on France 2 television.

He was responding to apparently off-the-cuff remarks by Trump in an interview with Fox News Sunday in which he questioned whether Washington should continue its “One China policy” unless Beijing makes concessions on trade and other issues.

“When China feels like it is being questioned over the unity of China, it’s not necessarily very smart,” he said.

US diplomatic tradition has long held to this policy, which does not recognize self-administered Taiwan as a sovereign state but sees Beijing as the sole representative.

It is essentially a diplomatic compromise allowing the US to do business with both China and Taiwan while only recognizing Beijing diplomatically.

“I don’t want China dictating to me,” Trump said, defending an earlier phone conversation with the president of Taiwan.

“I don’t know why we have to be bound by a One China policy unless we make a deal with China having to do with other things, including trade.”

Beijing swiftly hit back, saying it was “seriously concerned” by Trump’s suggestion he could drop the longstanding policy, saying it could have a big impact on bilateral ties. AFP</s>BEIJING | China’s foreign minister warned that any moves to damage Beijing’s core interests would be self-detrimental after U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said he could use the way in which America deals with Taiwan as a bargaining chip.

Wang Yi’s comments late Monday came a day after Trump said in a television interview that he didn’t feel “bound by a one-China policy.” Washington, however, reaffirmed the U.S. government’s commitment to the policy that means it maintains only unofficial relations with Taiwan, a self-governing island that Beijing considers its territory.

Since recognizing the People’s Republic of China in 1979, the U.S. has adhered to the one-China policy, recognizing Beijing as the capital of China and maintaining only unofficial relations with Taiwan. American law, however, requires the U.S. to ensure that Taiwan has the means to defend itself and to treat all threats to the island as matters of serious concern.

China split from Taiwan amid civil war in 1949 and continues to regard the island as a breakaway province to be reunified with the mainland, by force if necessary.

“I can clearly say, whether it is the authorities of Tsai Ing-wen, or anyone else or any power in the world, if they attempt to harm this principle or China’s core interests, the only result will be that they will smash their own foot while trying to lift a stone,” Wang said after meeting with his Swiss counterpart Didier Burkhalter in Switzerland.

Earlier Monday, Geng Shuang, a spokesman for China’s foreign ministry, said in Beijing that established policy is the “political foundation” of any diplomatic relationship between China and the U.S., and that any damage to it could render cooperation “out of the question.”

“We urge the new U.S. leader and government to fully understand the seriousness of the Taiwan issue, and to continue to stick to the one-China policy,” Geng said.

The comments by Wang and Geng are the strongest public condemnation China has made of Trump’s criticisms of current American policy toward Taiwan.

Beijing was already angered by Trump’s Dec. 2 phone call with Taiwanese President Tsai, the first time an American president or president-elect has publicly spoken to a Taiwanese leader in nearly four decades. China considers any reference to a separate Taiwanese head of state to be a grave insult.

Over the weekend, Trump told “Fox News Sunday” that he wouldn’t feel “bound by a one-China policy unless we make a deal with China having to do with other things, including trade.”

“Why should some other nation be able to say I can’t take a call?” he said. “I think it actually would’ve been very disrespectful, to be honest with you, not taking it.”

In Washington, the White House and State Department both reaffirmed the U.S. government’s commitment to a one-China policy.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said “the United States government, under the leadership of President Obama, has been and remains firmly committed to our one-China policy.” He added that “the Obama administration does not view Taiwan and our relationship with Taiwan as a bargaining chip.”

State Department spokesman John Kirby the department had “continued what has been a bipartisan approach for the past 40 years with respect to a one-China policy.”

Chinese officials have been restrained in their responses so far. They may be still trying to learn how to make their positions clear to Trump without feeding a vicious circle of insults and heightened tensions, said Dali Yang, a political science professor at the University of Chicago.

However, Trump’s suggestion that he could negotiate on Taiwan likely went too far for China, Yang said.

“He expected for China to bargain again for the one-China position, perhaps by giving up something on trade or something of that nature,” Yang said. “This is actually the foundation of the U.S.-China relationship, rather than something to be bargained over.”

Associated Press writers Louise Watt in Beijing and Matthew Pennington in Washington and AP researchers Yu Bing and Liu Zheng contributed to this report.</s>BEIJING (AP) — China says any change in U.S. policy favoring formal recognition of Taiwan will “seriously” damage peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and undermine relations between Beijing and Washington.

The comments from the spokesman for the Cabinet’s Taiwan Affairs Office Wednesday follow President-elect Donald Trump’s remarks over the weekend that he didn’t feel “bound by a one-China policy” unless the U.S. could gain benefits from China in trade and other areas.

Under the one-China policy, the U.S. recognizes Beijing as China’s government and maintains only unofficial relations with Taiwan, which broke from the Chinese mainland in 1949.

Spokesman An Fengshan said breaching the one-China principle “will seriously affect peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.”</s>China warned Donald Trump against using the "One China" policy regarding Taiwan as a bargaining chip in trade talks as the U.S. president-elect breaks with decades of diplomatic protocol.

"Adherence to the One China policy is the political bedrock for the development of the China-U.S. relationship," Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told reporters in Beijing at a regular briefing Monday. "If it is compromised or disrupted, the sound and steady growth of the China-U.S. relationship as well as bilateral cooperation in major fields would be out of the question."

Trump said in an interview broadcast Sunday that his support for the policy, which has underpinned U.S. behavior toward Taiwan since the 1970s, will hinge on cutting a better deal on trade. He tweeted Dec. 4 that China has devalued its currency and heavily taxed U.S. products, and he told a crowd in Iowa last week that China would soon have to "play by the rules."

Policymakers in Beijing initially had a more subdued response after Trump departed from diplomatic convention earlier this month and spoke by phone with Taiwan's president. But the official Xinhua News Agency on Monday published a commentary warning that China could be more likely to consider a military takeover of Taiwan "if Trump insisted on his provocations."

[TRUMP: Timeline of president-elect’s career + list of appointments so far]

The One China policy is an acknowledgment that Taiwan and China are part of the same China, even if they disagree on what that means. Chinese leaders define Taiwan as a so-called core interest, with the view that the island belongs to China and will never be independent.

"For China, there is no balancing of trade and Taiwan," said Wang Tao, head of China economic research at UBS AG in Hong Kong. "Taiwan is considered the utmost core interest of China, not for bargaining."

"I fully understand the One China policy, but I don't know why we have to be bound by a One China policy unless we make a deal with China having to do with other things, including trade," Trump said in interview with Fox News Sunday that was taped Saturday. "I don't want China dictating to me," he added.

Trump's 10-minute phone call with President Tsai Ing-wen in early December was the closest a Taiwanese leader has come to getting formal recognition from Washington since the U.S. established ties with the Communist government in Beijing almost four decades ago. Trump threatened during his campaign to brand China a currency manipulator immediately upon taking office, and to slap 45 percent tariffs on its exports to the U.S.

Taiwan's government must prepare for the future given uncertainty surrounding the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact, which Trump has pledged to abandon, Taipei-based cable television TVBS cited Tsai as saying Monday. Eric Huang, director of the International Affairs Department of the island's opposition party Kuomintang, said that peace in the Taiwan Strait shouldn't be sacrificed under any circumstance.

"We urge the new U.S. administration and its leadership to fully recognize the sensitivity of the Taiwan question and stick to the One China policy," Geng said.

The policy was worked out in the 1970s as President Richard Nixon switched formal diplomatic recognition to Beijing from Taiwan's Kuomintang government, which fled to the island during a civil war three decades earlier.</s>President-elect Donald Trump got everyone up in arms on the weekend by saying the U.S. would not necessarily be bound by the one China policy.

But what, exactly is the policy? Well, for almost four decades, since 1979, there has been a diplomatic understanding in the U.S. of the Chinese position that there is only one China and that Taiwan is a part of that China.

As such, the U.S. has formal ties with China rather than the island of Taiwan, considered by China as a breakaway province that will eventually be brought back into the fold.

Taiwan, however, claims its independence and calls itself the Republic of China.

Read more: Beijing expressing ‘serious concern’ about Trump after he said the U.S. is not bound by One China policy

But Republic of China or no Republic of China, if you want to do business with the People’s Republic of China, you have no official ties to Taipei.

So it’s easy to see why Trump triggered so many responses when he said on the weekend he wouldn’t feel “bound by a one China policy unless we make a deal with China having to do with other things, including trade.”

That statement came less than two weeks after he’d taken a call from Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, the first time an American president or president-elect has publicly spoken to a Taiwanese leader in nearly four decades.

An official Chinese newspaper called Donald Trump “as ignorant as a child.”

Here’s what a few others are saying:</s>Donald Trump has vowed dramatic change to the U.S. position on the world stage, threatening new antagonism with China even as he pledges to scrap the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a massive trade deal that promised to drive down tariffs and impose a Western order around the Pacific rim.

It is a moment of upheaval, trade enthusiasts say, that Canada should seize by abandoning its qualms and embracing China in a way it has never done, as Beijing positions itself for a more prominent position of global leadership.

“The whole world is wondering what Mr. Trump is going to look like,” in terms of the policies and priorities he will pursue, said Derek Burney, former chief of staff to Brian Mulroney and ex-ambassador to the United States. “Well, we don’t have to wait. We could be moving right now to forge a closer relationship with China.”

Read more: China takes off gloves over Taiwan, warns U.S. it would retaliate

For subscribers: Donald Trump ushers in a new style of Washington politics

Globe editorial: Is Ottawa playing into China’s hands, or vice versa? It’s hard to tell

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has already sought warmer ties with Beijing and, in September, placed Canada on a path toward a free-trade deal with China, with the two sides agreeing to exploratory talks. But that can be a slow process. It took Australia nine years and 21 rounds of negotiations to conclude a free-trade agreement with China.

If the Trudeau government pursues it strongly enough, Mr. Burney believes a Canadian deal can be done in two years, by cribbing from Canada’s approach three decades ago in negotiating the 1987 free-trade agreement with the U.S. – an approach that included a special cabinet committee dedicated to concluding a deal.

Critics say Canada should take Mr. Trump’s rise as a cautionary tale about the dangers of forging ahead with international deals that can damage local communities.

But Mr. Trump’s election has suddenly thrown into question the long-established leadership role of the U.S. in trade and other matters, creating an opening for China to gain new influence in keeping global goods moving – a possibility the country has embraced.

“We have been compelled to take the lead in the economic globalization effort,” Fang Xinghai, vice-chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, added at a Caixin Media summit earlier this month. “If we don’t, China’s interests will be hurt tremendously.”

China has already claimed renewed interest in its own Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, a less-ambitious regional trade deal that it leads, and local experts say it is prepared to take a larger role elsewhere, too.

“The globalization infrastructure like the World Bank, IMF or WTO, G7 or G20 – they should all be maintained and sustained and also improved,” said Wang Huiyao, president of the Centre for China and Globalization, a Chinese think tank.

If the U.S. “has backed off, we have to have other countries to support those systems.” Otherwise, he says, “the world will fall apart.”

Canada, of course, need not only look to Beijing. A largely completed free-trade deal with Japan is gathering dust. Ottawa could use the language of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which Mr. Trump wants to toss out, as the basis to speed talks with Southeast Asian nations.

And critics point to Mr. Trump’s rise – and the surge of nationalism that propelled the Brexit vote in Britain and rising populist movements across the world – as new reason to question exuberance for trade. Canada “is arguably better off without” the TPP, said Scott Sinclair, a senior research fellow with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

New scholarship adds grounds for skepticism. In “The China shock,” a recent academic article, an international team of researchers showed that the extraordinary rise of Chinese exports since 2001 eradicated millions of U.S. jobs with only “extremely modest offsetting employment.” In other words, they found, after the decade of frenzied trade that followed China’s accession to the World Trade Organization, “U.S. net welfare gains are close to zero.”

It suggests the need for “a more balanced view about the benefits and pitfalls of free trade,” said Victor Shih, a China scholar at the School of Global Policy and Strategy at the University of California, San Diego.

Another point of caution lies in China today, which has pushed a plan called Made in China 2025 to massively grow domestic capacity in robots, aeronautical equipment, rail and advanced medical products, among others – some of which overlap with Canada’s areas of expertise.

“It may not make so much sense to rush headlong into lowering trade barriers with China, because across a large number of sectors the Chinese government is heavily subsidizing industrial goods producers,” Prof. Shih said.

“Politicians and voters really have to think about this carefully.”

Canada has tensions to resolve with China, too, including around the steel industry. “Trade dumping. This is a serious issue in Canada,” said NDP international trade critic Tracey Ramsey. “Any trade deal that we’re going to enter, we need to take our time.”

There are other realities, as well. If Mr. Trump also makes good on his promise to re-examine NAFTA, Canada’s trade negotiators may be consumed by keeping trucks moving to the U.S.

But it’s important for Ottawa to maintain close ties with Beijing, so it can remain “the voice of reason,” said Guy Saint-Jacques, Canada’s recently retired ambassador to China – particularly if the U.S. under Mr. Trump shies from calling on China to uphold international standards of conduct.

“Otherwise,” Mr. Saint-Jacques said, “the Chinese will think they have free rein and can do what they want.”</s>President-elect says he sees no reason why the US should continuing abiding by One China policy unless a bargain is reached with Beijing involving trade

The Chinese government has warned Donald Trump it is “seriously concerned” after the US president-elect indicated he might jettison a four-decade understanding with Beijing unless its leaders were prepared to strike a new “deal” with his administration.

In an interview with Fox News on Sunday, the president-elect said he saw no reason why the US should continuing abiding by the “One China” policy – under which Washington does not recognise Taiwan as a sovereign state – unless Beijing was prepared to enter into some kind of bargain.

Could Trump's chest-thumping over China trigger a trade war? Read more

“I don’t know why we have to be bound by a ‘One China’ policy unless we make a deal with China having to do with other things, including trade,” Trump told the channel.



Washington’s acceptance of the “One China” principle – according to which Taiwan is officially regarded as part of the same single Chinese nation as the mainland – has been a crucial part of the foundation of US-China relations since ties between the two countries were re-established by Richard Nixon and Mao Zedong in 1972.



Trump’s comments drew an angry riposte from Beijing. Geng Shuang, a spokesman for China’s foreign ministry, told reporters that bilateral ties and “the sound and steady growth of China-US relations” would be “out of the question” were Trump to turn away from the “One China” policy.

“We urge the incoming US administration and its leaders to fully recognise the sensitivity of the Taiwan question … [and] to properly deal with Taiwan-related matters in a prudent manner so as not to disrupt or damage the overall interests of the bilateral relationship,” Geng said, describing the “One China” principle as the “political bedrock” of ties between the two countries.

The question of Taiwan, which Beijing regards as a breakaway province that should one day be reunified with the mainland, was one of China’s “core interests”, the spokesman pointed out.

In a separate statement, the ministry cited Foreign Minister Wang Yi as warning during a trip to Switzerland against moves to damage the “one China” principle, having been asked by a reporter about Trump’s call with Tsai.

“China is paying close attention to developments,” Wang said. “I can clearly say that no matter whether the Tsai Ing-wen authority, any other person in the world, or any other force, if they try and damage the one China principle and harm China’s core interests, in the end they are lifting a rock only to drop it on their feet.”

Trump’s comments came less than a fortnight after he looked to have initiated a potentially damaging diplomatic row with Beijing by holding a telephone conversation with Taiwan’s president, Tsai Ing-wen, and subsequently attacking China on Twitter.

In what was widely seen as an attempt to soothe tensions, Trump subsequently appointed the Iowa governor, Terry Branstad – a man China called “an old friend of the Chinese people” – as ambassador to Beijing.

Orville Schell, the head of the Centre on US-China Relations at New York’s Asia Society, said Trump’s latest comments – which the academic described as an “incredible provocation” – were the latest example of the billionaire’s contradictory moves towards China.

“He sometimes punches Beijing and he sometimes seems to reach out and hug them. The phone call to Tsai Ing-wen would be the former. Terry Branstad would be the latter. Now we have another uppercut,” he said of the Fox News interview.

Speaking on Sunday, Trump defended his protocol-shredding decision to talk to President Tsai on 2 December, the first such conversation between a US president or president-elect and a leader of the self-ruled island since ties between America and Taiwan were severed in 1979.



China considers Taiwan a renegade province and does not allow countries to maintain diplomatic relations with both Taipei and Beijing.



“I don’t want China dictating to me and this was a call put in to me,” Trump said. “It was a very nice call. Short. And why should some other nation be able to say I can’t take a call?”

“I think it actually would’ve been very disrespectful, to be honest with you, not taking it,” he added.

The president-elect also returned to some of the themes on which he criticised China during the election campaign.

“We’re being hurt very badly by China with devaluation, with taxing us heavy at the borders when we don’t tax them, with building a massive fortress in the middle of the South China Sea, which they shouldn’t be doing, and frankly with not helping us at all with North Korea,” he told Fox News.

“You have North Korea. You have nuclear weapons and China could solve that problem and they’re not helping us at all.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Trump speaks on Fox News on Sunday.

Nick Bisley, an international relations expert from La Trobe University in Melbourne, said: “The signal Trump is sending to China is: ‘You are not going to push us around; you are not going to dictate terms; we are going to be the ones who dictate terms to you’. And he’s also signalling, whether deliberately or not, that there are no sacred cows in US foreign policy, whether in Asia or anywhere else.”

Bisley said Trump’s early moves would have China’s leaders, who had anticipated dealing with a predictable “Obama 3.0” under a Clinton administration, scratching their heads.

“I think they will be genuinely befuddled and just thinking: ‘How do we deal with this guy? What’s the playbook?’” he said. “The overall consequence of all of this is that it’s going to make the region a lot more uncertain and the temperature is going to be a lot higher.”

Li Yonghui, the head of the school of international relations at the Beijing Foreign Studies University, said Trump was “testing the water” with China before taking office next month.

“It fits with the logic of a businessman. But on this issue, he has really gone off in the wrong direction. If he doesn’t understand the nature of the Taiwan issue then sooner or later he will. Taiwan is not like other issues … China will not compromise on the Taiwan issue.

“If the US wants to change the ‘One-China’ policy, then it will shake the foundations of Sino-US relations. [The consequences] are hard to imagine,” the Chinese academic warned.



In an editorial, the Global Times, a fervently nationalistic party-run tabloid, said Trump was “as ignorant as a child” in the field of diplomacy and warned him the “one China” policy was “not for sale”.

The newspaper claimed Trump’s inexperience meant he was easily “influenced or even manipulated by hardliners around him”.

It said China needed “to launch a resolute struggle with him” and should be “prepared to accompany Trump on a rollercoaster ride” for Sino-US relations. “We must buckle up, as should others around the world,” it said.

Schell said it was hard to predict how Beijing might respond to Trump’s latest gambit.

“I don’t know what Beijing is going to make of this because they have always dealt with these very square, proper people like Obama and Hillary Clinton who have always sought to keep the US policy relatively constant. And here you have someone who is doing the absolute opposite,” he said.

“I think they will be very careful about responding because in a certain sense they are meeting a brinksman just like themselves … [and] I don’t know what a brinksman or a bully does when they meet another brinksman and a bully. [Violence] would be one option, but very often one of them backs down.”

Additional reporting by Christy Yao and Reuters

</s>President-elect Donald Trump questioned in an interview broadcast Sunday whether the United States should continue its "one China" policy unless Beijing makes concessions on trade and other issues.

In an interview with Fox News, Trump commented on a phone conversation earlier this month with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen that had fallen subject to intense media scrutiny.

"I heard the call was coming probably an hour or two before. I fully understand the 'one China' policy, but I don't know why we have to be bounded by a 'one China' policy unless we make a deal with China having to do with other things, including trade," he said.

"I mean, look, we're being hurt very badly by China with devaluation, with (them) taxing us heavy at the borders when we don't tax them."

Trump said China was building a "massive fortress" in the South China Sea, and "frankly not helping us at all with North Korea."

He emphasized that he had not initiated the call with the Taiwan president and that it was a short message of congratulations on his November election victory. "It was a very nice call. Short," he said.

Reaction on social media was swift. One supporter wrote on Twitter: "he is a business man its called playing hardball."

But others questioned the wisdom of Trump's antagonist approach to dealing with China.
President-elect Donald Trump says he sees no reason why the U.S. should continue to abide by the One China policy unless a bargain is reached with Beijing involving trade.