Taiwan's off table, China tells Trump

German chancellor Angela Merkel speaks at a news conference in Perl, southwestern Germany, Saturday, Jan. 14, 2017.
German chancellor Angela Merkel speaks at a news conference in Perl, southwestern Germany, Saturday, Jan. 14, 2017.

China's Foreign Ministry said its one-China policy isn't negotiable and urged Donald Trump to recognize the "high sensitivity" with which it views Taiwan, a day after the president-elect hinted for the second time in a month at a reset of U.S.-China relations.

Trump was quoted by The Wall Street Journal late Friday as saying he would commit to the one-China policy only after assessing the progress the world's second-largest economy makes on trade and currency issues.

"The one-China principle, which is the political foundation of the China-U.S. relations, is non-negotiable," Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Lu Kang said in a statement on the agency's website.

One China is an acknowledgment that Taiwan and China are part of the same China, even if they disagree on what that means. Beijing regards it as a bedrock policy, not the bargaining chip that Trump has suggested. President Barack Obama has cautioned his successor against lightly abandoning Washington's stance on the delicate topic.

Trump has questioned the long-standing U.S. policy of recognizing Beijing over the government in Taiwan, and he has criticized China for a perceived failure to further pressure North Korea over its nuclear program.

The president-elect caused concern in Beijing after a 10-minute phone call in early December with Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen, 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.

"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 of both parties on adhering to the one-China policy," Kang said in the statement.

Some in China's leadership who had been confident that they understood Trump's business-minded approach questioned whether they were now dealing with an old-school Republican ideologue.

That creates new and uncertain ground for perennially troubled U.S.-China relations as Trump faces a rising power increasingly willing to challenge U.S. military and economic dominance.

Trump is getting advice to redefine U.S. policy in the Pacific region on get-tough military as well as economic grounds.

That's harder than it seems, experts on China said, and it is not yet clear where Trump wants to go.

"I'm not optimistic that things are going to go smoothly, not because of Donald Trump or [Chinese President] Xi Jinping, but because of a set of issues that are fairly intractable," said Dean Cheng, a China expert at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. "There are deeply rooted, firmly held views about how the world should work" on both sides.

"China thinks it should push its sovereignty" into areas of the Pacific that the United States considers off-limits. "That's a fairly zero-sum argument," Cheng said. No matter which way the situation plays out, "somebody's going to be unhappy."

Chinese state media denounced secretary of state nominee Rex Tillerson's blunt statement last week that China should be barred from using islands it made in the contested South China Sea.

The question of U.S. treatment of Taiwan is the same kind of zero-sum equation in the Chinese view, several U.S. analysts said. China will be watching for any U.S. action or statement that appears to elevate Taiwan's claim to sovereignty.

At the same time, Trump's choice to become U.S. ambassador to China, Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, has long ties to the country and is seen as an olive branch to the Xi government.

At his Senate confirmation hearing, Tillerson also balanced assertions that China has made empty promises on North Korea and is behaving illegally in the South China Sea by saying there are no plans to do away with the one-China" policy concerning Taiwan.

The president-elect also told The Wall Street Journal that he isn't prepared to declare China a currency manipulator immediately upon being sworn in Friday. 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.

"I would talk to them first," Trump was quoted as saying. "Certainly they are manipulators. But I'm not looking to do that."

Russian Sanctions

Trump also told the newspaper he would keep sanctions imposed by the Obama administration against Russia in place "for a period of time," adding that he'd consider lifting them once Vladimir Putin proves he can be an ally.

"If you get along and if Russia is really helping us, why would anybody have sanctions if somebody's doing some really great things?" Trump was quoted as saying during the hourlong interview.

Obama in December hit Russian intelligence officials and agencies with sanctions for cyberattacks aimed at interfering with the 2016 presidential campaign. After 35 Russian operatives were expelled from the U.S., Russia's president said his government wouldn't retaliate because he was waiting for Trump to take office. Trump responded with a tweet in which he called Putin "very smart."

At a news conference Wednesday, Trump acknowledged for the first time that Russia was responsible for hacking the email accounts of the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman. He has nonetheless stressed that he hopes to have a better relationship with Moscow and that he thinks there has been too much attention paid to the issue.

Trump has signaled that he's looking to shake up relationships with China and Russia. He wants closer ties with Russia and says the U.S. can work with the Kremlin to combat Islamic terrorism, while vowing to get tough on China.

Trump's pick to lead a newly formed White House National Trade Council, Peter Navarro, a University of California, Irvine, economics professor, is a frequent critic of China's trade practices.

Merkel: Cooperation key

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, as she awaits Trump's inauguration, is stressing that the world's problems must be addressed cooperatively rather than by each country individually.

Asked at a news conference Saturday about protectionist tendencies in the U.S., Merkel said she will seek a dialogue with the new president.

"I don't want to get ahead of that, but I am very much convinced that we as partners benefit more if we act together than if everyone solves problems for themselves, and that is a constant fundamental attitude on my part," she said.

Underlining the importance of the Group of 20 industrial powers, which Germany chairs this year, she said that the international response to the financial crisis "was not a response based on isolation, but a response based on cooperation, on common rules for regulating financial markets, and I think that is the promising path."

Merkel has made clear that she's unhappy about the possible demise of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement as a result of Trump's desire to withdraw the United States. Trump has criticized Merkel's decision to allow large numbers of migrants into Germany.

Merkel said there are contacts at the "adviser level" with Trump's team, though there was no immediate word on any plans for a meeting beyond the summits of the Group of Seven in May and G-20 in July. Merkel will host the latter summit in the German city of Hamburg.

"If there's anything beyond that then we will announce that at the appropriate time," Merkel said.

Information for this article was contributed by Michael B. Marois, Linly Lin and Patrick Donahue of Bloomberg News, Anne Gearan of The Washington Post and Geir Moulson of The Associated Press.

A Section on 01/15/2017

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