 After nearly three weeks as president Trump talks to Chinese leader and, when asked, agrees to maintain status quo 
 
 Donald Trump has held his first telephone conversation with the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, since entering the White House, telling the Communist party leader he will not challenge Beijing by upending longstanding US policy towards Taiwan. In a brief statement the White House said the leaders of the world’s two largest economies had held a “lengthy” and “extremely cordial” telephone call on Thursday evening in which “numerous topics” were discussed. Donald Trump and China on dangerous collision course, say experts Read more 
 
 “President Trump agreed, at the request of President Xi, to honor our ‘One China’ policy,” the White House said, referring to a diplomatic understanding by which Washington does not challenge China’s claim over Taiwan, a democratically ruled island that Beijing considers a breakaway province.  BEIJING (AP) — The U.S. Pacific Command says a Chinese aircraft and a U.S. Navy patrol plane had an "unsafe" encounter over the South China Sea this week, raising concerns. US Pacific Command spokesman Robert Shuford said on Friday the “interaction” between a Chinese KJ-200 early warning aircraft and a US Navy P-3C plane happened in international airspace but did not say what was regarded as unsafe. Shuford says the U.S. plane was on a routine mission and operating according to international law. The Chinese defence ministry has not responded to a request by Associated Press for comment. Following his shock election in November last year, Trump had infuriated and unnerved Beijing by questioning his administration’s commitment to the “One China” policy and holding an unprecedented phone conversation with Taiwan’s president, Tsai Ing-wen. "One China" is an arrangement dating back to the 1970s under which countries can maintain formal diplomatic relations with China or Taiwan, but not both. The Trump-Tsai call was the first between a US president or president-elect and a Taiwanese leader since Beijing and Washington established diplomatic relations in 1979. The White House statement said the two presidents had “extended invitations to meet in their respective countries” and that officials from both countries would now engage in “discussions and negotiations on various issues of mutual interest”. “Trump had been toying with the notion of trying to use it to get leverage with the Chinese but was convinced that it was in the US interests to abide by it … Trump was convinced, and rightly so, that the ‘One China’ policy is not something we do because it is good for Beijing.
– A day after offering belated Chinese New Year greetings, President Trump gave Beijing something more substantial: his assurances that he respects America's long-standing "one China" policy and plans to adhere to it. Trump had his first conversation with China's President Xi Jinping late Thursday and the White House says it was an "extremely cordial" talk, the South China Morning Post reports. "The two leaders discussed numerous topics and President Trump agreed, at the request of President Xi, to honor our one-China policy," the White House said in a statement. The policy, which the US has followed for decades, accepts Beijing's view that Taiwan is a part of China. Trump infuriated China in December when, as president-elect, he spoke directly to Taiwan's president. Analysts say Trump appears to have adopted a more pragmatic approach, possibly because of the influence of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. The phone call is "good news and a positive development for the relationship," Paul Haenle, director of the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center in Beijing, tells the Guardian. "It will allow the US and China to get on to the more difficult issues that really need work, such as trade, North Korea, and the South China Sea." The AP reports that the US Pacific Command disclosed Friday that a Chinese aircraft and a US Navy patrol plane had an "unsafe" encounter over the South China Sea earlier in the week.