What Trump’s Tweets Mean for the US-China Relationship

Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen, left, speaking at a ceremony at the Gen. Andres Rodriguez school in Asuncion, Paraguay, on June 29, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, center, talking with President Barack Obama at White House in Washington, U.S.A. on Nov. 10, and China’s President Xi Jinping arriving at La Moneda presidential palace in Santiago, Chile, on Nov. 22. With Trump’s latest tweets touching on sensitive issues, China must decide how to handle an incoming American president who relishes confrontation and whose online statements appear to foreshadow shifts in foreign policy. China awoke Monday, Dec. 5, to criticism from Trump on Twitter, days after it responded to his telephone conversation with Taiwan’s president by accusing the Taiwanese of playing a “little trick” on Trump.
Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen, left, speaking at a ceremony at the Gen. Andres Rodriguez school in Asuncion, Paraguay, on June 29, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, center, talking with President Barack Obama at White House in Washington, U.S.A. on Nov. 10, and China's President Xi Jinping arriving at La Moneda presidential palace in Santiago, Chile, on Nov. 22. With Trump's latest tweets touching on sensitive issues, China must decide how to handle an incoming American president who relishes confrontation and whose online statements appear to foreshadow shifts in foreign policy. China awoke Monday, Dec. 5, to criticism from Trump on Twitter, days after it responded to his telephone conversation with Taiwan's president by accusing the Taiwanese of playing a "little trick" on Trump. Jorge Saenz, Pablo Martinez Monsivais, Luis Hidalgo / AP Photo
Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen, left, speaking at a ceremony at the Gen. Andres Rodriguez school in Asuncion, Paraguay, on June 29, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, center, talking with President Barack Obama at White House in Washington, U.S.A. on Nov. 10, and China’s President Xi Jinping arriving at La Moneda presidential palace in Santiago, Chile, on Nov. 22. With Trump’s latest tweets touching on sensitive issues, China must decide how to handle an incoming American president who relishes confrontation and whose online statements appear to foreshadow shifts in foreign policy. China awoke Monday, Dec. 5, to criticism from Trump on Twitter, days after it responded to his telephone conversation with Taiwan’s president by accusing the Taiwanese of playing a “little trick” on Trump.
Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen, left, speaking at a ceremony at the Gen. Andres Rodriguez school in Asuncion, Paraguay, on June 29, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, center, talking with President Barack Obama at White House in Washington, U.S.A. on Nov. 10, and China's President Xi Jinping arriving at La Moneda presidential palace in Santiago, Chile, on Nov. 22. With Trump's latest tweets touching on sensitive issues, China must decide how to handle an incoming American president who relishes confrontation and whose online statements appear to foreshadow shifts in foreign policy. China awoke Monday, Dec. 5, to criticism from Trump on Twitter, days after it responded to his telephone conversation with Taiwan's president by accusing the Taiwanese of playing a "little trick" on Trump. Jorge Saenz, Pablo Martinez Monsivais, Luis Hidalgo / AP Photo

What Trump’s Tweets Mean for the US-China Relationship

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President-elect Donald Trump’s phone call with Taiwan’s president last week marked the first time that a U.S. president or president-elect has spoken with Taiwan’s leader since 1979.

China views Taiwan as a rogue province, and as NPR’s Jackie Northam writes: “It’s part of a one-China policy the U.S. has gone along with since the 1970s as part of a compromise to work with Beijing on other issues.”

Over the weekend Trump tweeted a series of tweets criticizing China’s actions in the South China Sea along with its monetary policy. During the campaign, Trump also threatened to label China as currency manipulator.

We take a look at China’s reaction to Trump and the details of the president-elect’s outreach to Taiwan with Wen Huang, author of The Little Red Guard and Death in the Lucky Holiday Hotel.