President-elect Trump’s acceptance of a congratulatory call from Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, the first such communication between a U.S. leader and a free Chinese President since 1979, has opened an issue that has been ignored for far too long.
During the worst days of the Cold War, The U.S. was able to use Beijing’s distrust of the Kremlin’s leadership to its advantage. While never formally allied, both America and China had a common interest in containing the vast Soviet military.
But on December 21, 1991, the USSR officially ceased to exist. Beijing and Moscow ended their rivalry, and now those two have formed what may well be the world’s most powerful military alliance, one which is centered around the goal of weakening American influence. The original reasons for Washington’s tilt away from Taiwan and towards the Mainland have all but vanished, but its’ policy tilt in favor of Beijing continues as though frozen in time.
There are harsh realities of the U.S-China relationship that have been ignored for far too long:
- Beijing unfairly burdens American companies seeking to do business in China. They have even demanded that U.S. internet giants, such as Facebook, accept censorship. (Disgracefully, it appears that some have accepted that immoral condition as a cost of doing business.)
- The Chinese military is geared against the US and its allies. China has engaged in a massive peacetime military buildup, despite the absence of any credible threat. It’s rate of spending increases even exceeds that of either the United States or the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War.
- Beijing engages in an extraordinary amount of espionage against the civilian American government, the military, and private businesses within the United States.
- China has engaged in aggressive behavior against its neighbors. The World Court at The Hague has ruled that Beijing’s takeover of areas rightfully belonging to the Philippines, for example, was illegal.
- China has established military relations across the globe, including within Latin America, that pose a threat to the United States.
- One of the chief threats to international safety has been the North Korean nuclear weapons program. China has the influence to stop this, but has refused to do so.
- Shortly before the call was made, mainland Chinese nuclear bombers circled Taiwan.
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The reaction to Trump’s acceptance of the call has been intriguing. When President Obama re-established relations with Cuba, a Communist nation which has been a key sponsor of international terrorism, ruled by a government that harshly represses its own people, and which had recently invited the Russian navy back in, the media and much of the political class on the left considered the move praise-worthy.
However, the relatively innocuous acceptance of a phone call from Taiwan, which has been unfailingly friendly towards the United States, a good world neighbor and a fair and open trading partner, has been inappropriately met with distress.
The Brookings Institute worried: “The news that President-elect Trump has spoken by phone to Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen as part of the series of congratulatory calls on his election heightens concerns about Trump’s foreign policy deftness. There are serious risks posed by his failure to take briefings by government professionals, and he appears to have little respect for the potential damage of actions taken without understanding long-standing U.S. national security concerns.”
The Washington Post wrote: “Donald Trump’s protocol-breaking telephone call with Taiwan’s leader was an intentionally provocative move…”
The President-elect’s response to the criticism was issued via Twitter:
“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?”
Although the phone call was a minor move, it is, hopefully, the beginning of a more practical, realistic, and balanced policy towards Beijing.