President Donald Trump has told Chinese President Xi Jinping that he will honor the “One China” policy, which should ease tensions between the two presidents. From The Financial Times:
The White House released a statement after the FT reported the call between the two men, saying that Mr Trump had agreed “at the request of President Xi” to honour the “one China” policy.“The phone call between President Trump and President Xi was extremely cordial, and both leaders extended best wishes to the people of each other’s countries. They also extended invitations to meet in their respective countries,” the White House said.
The two presidents have not spoken since November 14. Tensions spiked after Trump spoke to Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen in December, the “first time a president or president-elect has spoken with the leader of Taiwan since Washington established diplomatic ties with Beijing in 1979.”
Trump’s team attempted to repair the relationship when the president sent a letter to Xi to wish him a happy new year.
On Thursday, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson attended meetings at the White House to discuss the One China policy. During his confirmation hearing, Tillerson promised to uphold the One China policy and unlike Trump, does not think we should use Taiwan “as a bargaining chip in a broader negotiation with China on trade and other issues.”
This phone call is also significant because Trump will meet with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday:
“The significance of this phone call prior to the visit of Prime Minister Abe cannot be overstated,” said Dennis Wilder, a former top China analyst at the CIA: “The Chinese had sought reassurance that President Trump did not intend to overturn a fundamental principle underpinning US-China relations and Northeast Asian geostrategic stability for the past four decades – the one China policy.”Mr Wilder added: “By reasserting the commitment to the one China policy, President Trump opens the ground for a constructive dialogue with Beijing on the difficult but resolvable issues of rebalancing the trading relationship that has tilted in Beijing’s favour.”
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