China’s Foreign Ministry on Monday warned that any change in the one-China policy, if pursued by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, will impair ties between Beijing and Washington.
"Upholding the 'one-China' principle is the political basis for developing China-U.S. ties. If this basis is interfered with or damaged then the healthy development of China-U.S. relations and bilateral cooperation in important areas is out of the question," China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told a daily news briefing on Monday.
Mr. Geng was responding to a spate of queries following a Sunday interview on Fox News by Mr. Trump, where he questioned U.S. persistence with a one-China policy, unless there were concessions from Beijing on trade and other issues.
“I don’t know why we have to be bound by a one-China policy unless we make a deal with China having to do with other things, including trade,” Mr. Trump observed.
He also blamed China for devaluing its currency, and not cooperating with Washington on North Korea and the South China Sea.
The one-China policy underscores recognition of China’s sovereignty over Taiwan — a position that has been held by the United States since 1979.
"China has noted the report and expresses serious concern about it. I want to stress that the Taiwan issue concerns China's sovereignty and territorial integrity, and involves China's core interests," Mr. Geng observed.
Earlier, an editorial in China’s Global Times newspaper, affiliated with the Communist Party of China (CPC), asserted that the one-China policy, recognising Taiwan as a part of China, was non-negotiable. It rebuked the U.S. president-elect for being “as ignorant as a child in terms of foreign policy.”
The daily warned that Beijing would have no reason to “put peace above using force to take back Taiwan” if Mr. Trump retracted from the policy, in place since 1979, which recognises Taiwan as part of China.
In its response, the Global Times made it unambiguous that the one-China policy “is not something that can be negotiated”. It added, “It seems Trump knows only about business. He thinks he can put a price on everything.”
“At that time [after Trump abandons the one-China policy] ... mainland China will put forward a series of decisive new Taiwan policies. We will prove that the United States no longer dominates the Taiwan Strait.”
The daily counselled Mr. Trump to “study foreign affairs humbly”. “He particularly needs to learn what the relationship between China and U.S. is about.”
Some Chinese academics point out that Mr. Trump’s remarks were not driven by the President-elect’s inexperience in foreign policy. “It appears that the remarks were made quite deliberately. Perhaps, Mr. Trump and his team want to make a deal with China, based on the Taiwan issue. But China, cannot make any deal, which questions its sovereignty over Taiwan,” says Liu Zongyi, of the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies when contacted by The Hindu .
Reuters quoted Wang Yiwei, an international relations professor at Beijing’s Renmin University, as saying that Mr. Trump was possibly using the Taiwan issue to try and strike a bargain with the United States over trade. "He wants to get the best possible trade deal with China he can so that he can boost the U.S. economy," he observed.
