In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, President-elect Donald Trump said he may lift the Russian sanctions and has no commitment to the One China policy:
“If you get along and if Russia is really helping us, why would anybody have sanctions if somebody’s doing some really great things?” he said.
Trump also said the One China policy remains up in the air “until he saw what he considered progress from Beijing in its currency and trade practices.”
Yeah, needless to say, those comments did not please Beijing.
Remember, the U.S. has imposed sanctions on Russia since March 2014 when Russian President Vladimir Putin annexed Crimea from Ukraine. But I noticed the interview only mentioned the sanctions President Obama’s administration imposed in late December due to possible interference in our election.
These comments don’t help suspicions of those who believe a cozy relationship exists between Trump and Putin since media outlets published a dossier this week that demonstrated ties between the two [editor’s note (FS): a dossier that is being debunked as we run this post]. However, the intelligence community has not confirmed any truth to it.
Trump said he would meet with Putin shortly after his inauguration if the two sides can make arrangements. On Saturday, some outlets published reports that Trump made Putin his first meeting after the inauguration, but incoming White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer denied the reports.
Turning to China, Trump told the Journal that “[E]verything is under negotiation including One China.” Tensions have already risen between Trump and China due to a phone call he had with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen in December. china does not recognize Taiwan’s independence after it broke off from the mainland in 1949. Washington, D.C., stopped recognizing Taiwan as well in 1979 when the government adopted the One China policy. The Wall Street Journal reported:
Mr. Trump has said in the past he would label China a currency manipulator after he takes office. In the interview, he said he wouldn’t take that step on his first day in the White House. “I would talk to them first,” he said.He added: “Certainly they are manipulators. But I’m not looking to do that.”But he made plain his displeasure with China’s currency practices. “Instead of saying, ‘We’re devaluating our currency,’ they say, ‘Oh, our currency is dropping.’ It’s not dropping. They’re doing it on purpose.“Our companies can’t compete with them now because our currency is strong and it’s killing us.”
Those comments did not please Beijing at all according to Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang:
“There is but one China in the world, and Taiwan is an inalienable part of China,” Mr. Lu said in a statement that was posted on the foreign ministry’s website on Saturday.“In order to avoid disruption to the sound and steady development of the China-U.S. relations and bilateral cooperation in key areas, we urge relevant parties in the U.S. to fully recognize the high sensitivity of the Taiwan question, approach Taiwan-related issues with prudence and honor the commitment made by all previous U.S. administrations,” the statement said.
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