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CHINESE LEADERS FACE a challenge: how to deal with Donald Trump.
Weeks before taking office, the incoming American president is riling Beijing with confrontation and online statements that appear to foreshadow a tougher foreign policy toward China.
China woke up this morning to sharp criticism posted by Trump on Twitter, days after Beijing responded to his telephone conversation with Taiwan’s president by accusing the Taiwanese of playing a “small trick” on Trump.
Trump wrote:
Did China ask us if it was OK to devalue their currency (making it hard for our companies to compete), heavily tax our products going into their country (the U.S. doesn’t tax them) or to build a massive military complex in the middle of the South China Sea?
“I don’t think so!”
Personality
That was apparently prompted by China’s response to Trump’s talk Friday with Tsai Ing-wen, the first time an American president or president-elect is known to have spoken to a Taiwanese leader since the US broke off formal diplomatic relations in 1979.
So far, China has avoided responding with open hostility. Today, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said China would have “no comment on what motivated the Trump team” to make the tweets, but said he believed both sides would continue to support a “sound and a stable bilateral relationship.”
“For us, for China, we do not comment on his personality,” Lu said.
We focus on his policies, especially his policies toward China.
China’s reaction to Trump’s call with Tsai was relatively low-key given the sensitivity China places on Taiwan.
The US and Taiwan retain strong unofficial ties, and the US sells weapons to the self-governing island. But American leaders have for decades avoided any official recognition in deference to China, which claims Taiwan as part of its territory, to be captured by force if necessary.
Trump’s reference in another tweet to Tsai as “the President of Taiwan” was sure to inflame China, which considers any reference to Taiwan having a president as a grave insult.
Punish
But China only said it would make a “solemn representation” in Washington, and Lu declined to expand on that statement today.
Instead, China seemed to offer Trump a face-saving way out of an apparent blunder by blaming the Taiwanese.
English-language commentaries then appeared in two state-run newspapers known to be used by China’s ruling Communist Party leadership to send messages abroad.
“Trump might be looking for some opportunities by making waves,” the Global Times said in an editorial today headlined, “Talk to Trump, punish Tsai administration.”
“However, he has zero diplomatic experience and is unaware of the repercussions of shaking up Sino-US relations,” the newspaper said.
It is certain that Trump doesn’t want a showdown with China, because it is not his ambition, and neither was it included in his promise to the electorate.
He puts out feelers to sound China out and chalk up some petty benefits.
China’s response was characteristically coded. But it now faces an incoming president who deals in outspoken tweets, not communiques.
Not true
Trump used a platform banned by censors in mainland China to renew several of his criticisms during the US presidential campaign. Some of his arguments aren’t true.
Taiwan’s official Central News Agency, citing anonymous sources on Saturday, said Edwin Feulner, founder of the Washington-based Heritage Foundation, was a “crucial figure” in setting up communication channels between the sides.
Vice President-elect Mike Pence yesterday said that the phone call shouldn’t necessarily be interpreted as a shift in US policy. He shrugged off the attention to the incident as media hype.
“It was a courtesy call,” Pence told NBC’s Meet the Press.
Ned Price, a spokesman for the White House National Security Council, said Trump’s conversation does not signal any change to long-standing US policy — although some in Taiwan expressed hopes for strong US support from the incoming administration.
In terms of Trump’s criticisms, Chinese imports are taxed at standard US rates, while Washington has recently slapped painful punitive tariffs on Chinese steel, solar panels and other goods.
And while China once kept a tight grip on the value of the yuan, also known as the renminbi, it now allows it to trade within a bandwidth 2% above or below a daily target set by the People’s Bank of China.
The yuan is currently trading at around a six-year low against the dollar. But economists now conclude that the currency is more or less properly valued in relation to the dollar and other foreign currencies.
Controls
And with economic growth slowing considerably and more Chinese trying to move money out of the country, the government is now spending massively to hold up the yuan’s value rather than depressing it as Trump and other critics accuse it of doing.
It has also imposed strict controls on Chinese moving money out of the country.
China has built up its military and constructed man-made islands in the South China Sea, and made sweeping territorial claims over almost the entire critical waterway. Those claims were broadly rejected in June by an international tribunal in The Hague.
Shi Yinhong, a professor of international relations at People’s University in Beijing, predicted China would not lash out immediately, but calibrate its response over the next several months after Trump enters the White House.
“Trump’s remarks will certainly raise the concerns of Chinese leaders,” Shi said. “But at the moment, they will be restrained and watch his moves closely.”
Calm
Meanwhile, Taiwan has urged China to stay calm after the Taiwanese leader’s unprecedented phone call to US President-elect Donald Trump angered Beijing, as residents and analysts in Taipei expressed fears at the possible fallout.
Ties between Taipei and Beijing have grown increasingly frosty since China-sceptic Tsai Ing-wen took power in Taiwan in May, ending eight years of cross-strait rapprochement.
Beijing has since cut off all official communication with the self-ruled island, which it still views as part of its territory.
Today Taiwan’s China affairs minister Chang Hsiao-yueh urged Beijing to consider the matter with a “calm attitude”. She told reporters:
The government values ties with [China] and the president has reiterated time and again that Taiwan will not go back to the old way of confrontation… I don’t think there is an act of provocation.
Tsai herself has made no comment but the presidential office has insisted there is “no conflict” between Taiwan maintaining relations with the US and with China.
In Taipei some said they now fear a Beijing backlash.
“I doubt that a short phone call will help Taiwan that much in the long-term, but it will infuriate China and they will likely take vengeful moves against Taiwan,” said receptionist Hu Chi-hui, 38.
Saleswoman Ho Li-chin, 43, told AFP she fears China will try to isolate Taiwan even more in the international community.
More harm than good
Political analysts said Tsai was gambling that the call would increase her bargaining power with Beijing.
Fan Shih-ping of the National Taiwan Normal University, said Tsai wanted to show Beijing that “giving Taiwan the cold shoulder would drive it further towards the US”.
But as she battles falling approval ratings at home over domestic issues, observers agreed the move was unlikely to significantly improve her popularity – and could damage it further.
“Beijing will not leave the matter at that and this could do Tsai more harm than good, such as prompting Beijing to get Taiwan’s diplomatic allies to switch recognition,” said Tang Shao-cheng, a political scientist at the National Chengchi University.
However, some residents voiced support for Tsai.
“Taiwan has the right to maintain relations with other countries and we shouldn’t look to China before taking our moves,” said pensioner Lin Ji-chen in Taipei. ”Taiwan should walk its own path.”
With reporting from AFP. - © AFP, 2016
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Stick to primary school teaching….
@Me_a_monkey: I thought it a good article. Might have helped to show the swimsuit/ advert of the times discussed. But a bit of a harsh comment monkey.
@Me_a_monkey: I disagree. Live and let live. Do what you want and don’t be defined simply by the day job. It’s a well written humorous yet serious piece. I enjoyed it. But Special K is not really a healthy food and it’s more about marketing and how people are constantly being manipulated to part them from their hard-earned cash. A complaint to the advertising standards authority might improve things.
@Me_a_monkey: It was just far too long and too loosely written. Needs editing and cutting back.
I think all this Instagranming of ‘body positivity’ and celebrating curves etc is all very well but the reality is you’re looking at Type 2 diabetes and all that goes with it. The Special K ad and the like are nonsense but there’s a danger with embracing our curves too. All the high Street and online plus size trends are a double edged sword. There are serious health reasons that nobody is supposed to be a size 22.
@Sinead Mooney: how dare you fat shame!! FAT SHAMER! Oh wait I shouldn’t use that word. PLUS SIZED SHAMER!
Brands that sell themselves as healthy but which are actually processed junk, should be banned. Eat natural.
@Alan Currie: so that is most brands, especially those that claim low fat.
After all the are low fat, but to stop the product tasting like cardboard they’ve added more sugar…. Which turns to fat in a person’s body due to the large amount as your body trys to store the excess sugar as fat since it can’t process the large amount at once.
@Barry Somers: you’ll find most man made foods that are low sugar are high in fat, and vice versa. There’s also danger of people using fat blocker pills, which also block the good fats from getting absorbed, omega 3 + 6 etc. A lot of people now switching to ketogenic diet.
@Alan Currie: Many natural foods too, to be fair! What nature doesn’t provide are foods high in both sugar and fat.
Lol.
Life is so short. Gonna have me bacon and eggs today. Then chase the dog up a hill.
Never had ‘Special K’ in my whole life of 60ish years. Live. Love. Eat. Move.
Oh and organic oats are all the breakfast cereal you need.
@willow moon: Good for you. But as we live in a world where we have confectionary products pushed on suggestible people from all directions and sugar added to everything (even baked beans), a little pressure to be healthy is probably no harm.
Really do not understand the point of this article. I get it’s poking fun at the underlying theme of the special k marketing. Is this another article on how certain advertising body shames women? This tired notion that it’s everyone else’s job to stop hurting your feelings? I really don’t get the purpose of this article.
@mark d: I would suggest re-reading it, you might get it the second time around
@Vocal Outrage: pleas explain it for me.
@Vocal Outrage: please explain it for me.
I’m sure I’d look great in that swimsuit! Drive the men wild!
I also grew up with the Diet Coke ad. Apparently they wanted to make another ad in that style and it was banned before it was even shot. We are now in the pc world. (There’s another advert). I think if you treat people like adults they act like adults and can make up their own minds about what they want. Maybe that’s why we are all still treated like children.
@Marcia Craine: but you have no problem with those adults being given false and misleading info/data?
How do you expect them to make up their minds if they are being lied to be the food industry?
@Barry Somers: when does it become an individuals responsibility to find and disseminate information for themselves. Also if people believe everything they see in an advert they deserve to be fooled.
This example really enhances her camel toe
What’s wrong with ambition, wanting to look better and feel better. If you want to commit suicide by over eating and indulging in harmful practices, go ahead, I don’t want to be paying for your diabetes medication or gastric bypass surgery. The reality is, being overweight is unhealthy and self limiting.
@Daniel Donovan: oh oh! Snowflakes gonna get you for that comment!
Most upset person here is yourself, so far, Mark. Does that say anything to you?
I can just imagine Waterford Whispers with this one. “Woman believes a full bodied red swimsuit body shames, goes to a beach in Spain and has a meltdown.”
If anything those swimsuits went out of their way to be modest and cover all the… bits. These days you see worse on a sunny July day in Grafton Street, and skimpier swimsuits held together with a bit of string and half a handkerchief on Termonfeckin beach. Personally I never look…
have your say