Calling 70-year-old President-elect Donald Trump a “diplomatic rookie” for taking a phone call from Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, Chinese state media warned him to refrain from rocking the boat with the world’s second biggest economy. Trump’s been telling audiences about the $500 billion trade imbalance with China, accusing Beijing of devaluing its currency to remain dominant in business dealings with world economies. Trump’s media critics pounced on another chance to rip the President-elect as unfit for office, highlighting his breach of protocol. When you really examine what Trump did, he served notice to communist China that he won’t kowtow to Beijing where the Chinese Chairman Xi Jinping presides over the politburo, controlling every facet of Chinese life, including the press. Chinese objections to Trump taking a call from Taipei are outrageous.
Trump’s reaction runs counter to the politically correct culture acquiescing to China’s bullying. Taking a congratulatory call from Taipai serves notice that China can’t dictate with whom Trump speaks, something so far beyond the pale it can’t pass unnoticed. Telling an incoming president with whom he can speak violates the U.S. Constitution guarantee of free speech as much as anything else. Few countries on the planet, including Kim Jong-un’s North Korea, have China’s widely known history of human rights’ abuses. Dictating with whom an American leader can speak has nothing to do with the 1979 “one-China” communiqué where former President Jimmy Carter agreed to severe formal diplomatic relations with Taipai to placate Beijing. Saying Trump’s “inability to keep his mouth shut,” China nationalist Global Times spewed more self-righteous provocation.
Trump put China on notice that he’s not the one that should muzzle his comments. There’s no breach of any diplomatic protocol taking a congratulator phone call from a foreign leader. Whether or not the U.S. does business in China, it’s not up to the China’s politburo to muzzle free speech in America. Every time the U.S. tries to lecture China on human rights, it tells the U.S. government to mind its own business. Chinese media calls Trump’s call “provocation and falsehoods,” something so twisted it defies comprehension. Taking a phone call from Taipai doesn’t change U.S. trading relations with China one iota. What is “provocative” is a foreign government dictating the limits of American free speech. While the U.S. has its problems, it doesn’t roll tanks over pro-Democracy demonstrators, like China did June 4, 1989 in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.
Seeking leverage with rogue regimes around the globe, Trump seeks to reset ties with Moscow, something President Barack Obama allowed to deteriorate over his eight years in office. Having Russian President Vladimir Putin on his side, Trump hopes to restore the linkage once enjoyed with better U.S.-Russian relations. Talking about U.S.-Sino relations, the Chinese English-language Global Times warned Trump “can make a lot of noise but that does not exempt him from the rules of the major power game.” Showing more provocation, the paper went on to say, Trump “doesn’t have sufficient resources to be provocative with China,” showing that China, not the U.S., likes to pound its chest. When you consider China’s aggressive building of military airstrips in the South China Sea, it makes you wonder whether or not there’s any check-and-balance to China’s bravado.
Trump coming to power sets up a whole new dynamic on the world stage with the U.S. resuming it’s proper role in world leadership. Putin’s more than willing to join the U.S. with some very minor tweaking of U.S. foreign policy. Obama’s wholesale reliance on the U.N. sabotaged U.S. influence on the world stage but, more importantly, pitted the U.S. against Russia. When Putin decided to annex Crimea March 1, 2014, Obama went along with the U.N. condemning Russian actions. Putin didn’t condemn U.S. actions when it went to war Oct. 7, 2001 against the Taliban in Afghanistan or Iraq’s Saddam Hussein March 20, 2003. Russia lost nearly 15,000 soldiers battling Afghan insurgents, including Osama bin Laden, supported by the U.S. Obama strongly condemned Putin for invading Crimea and backing pro-Russian separatists in Southeastern Ukaine. Condemning Putin only hurt U.S. national security.
China’s overreaction to Trump’s phone call from Taipei shows exactly why the U.S. media serves as a rubber stamp to foreign governments. “Trump’s China-bashing Tweet is just a cover for his real intent, which is to treat China as a fat lamb and cut a piece of mean off it,” wrote the Global Times, mirroring the Chinese politburo. China’s insecurity about Taipei speaks volumes about its real motive of controlling major economies by monopolizing world manufacturing with cheap labor prices. Trump “will learn not to cross China,” said Global Times, insisting he’ll fall in line just like Obama and other past U.S. presidents. What Beijing doesn’t get is that Trump wants a two-way street when it comes to bilateral trade relations. It’s not enough to provide American businesses cheap labor and high profits. Trump wants China to invest more in the U.S., returning jobs and manufacturing.
