US President Barack Obama has warned his successor Donald Trump against provoking a “very significant” response from China over the Taiwan issue.
The United States president-elect has broken with four decades of US diplomacy by suggesting Washington’s “One China” stance may be reviewed and by accepting a call from Taiwan’s leader Tsai Ing-wen.
The 10-minute telephone call was the first of its kind by a US president-elect or president since America established diplomatic relations with China in 1979, acknowledging Taiwan as part of one China.
China has lodged a diplomatic protest earlier at Trump’s move.
Obama, who leaves office on January 20 to make way for Trump, has taken a cautious stance with China and urged the president-elect to proceed with care.
“The idea of One China is at the heart of their conception as a nation,” he told a White House news conference. “And so if you are going to upend this understanding, you have to have thought through what the consequences are, because the Chinese will not treat that the way they’ll treat some other issues.”
“This goes to the core of how they see themselves, and their reaction on this issue could end up being very significant,” he added.
Read the full story at Shanghai Daily