US president-elect Donald Trump has launched a fresh attack on China's currency policy and its expansionist moves in the South China Sea after his phone call with Taiwanese leader Tsai Ing-wen irritated Beijing at the weekend.
China lodged a diplomatic protest after Mr Trump's 10-minute call with Ms Tsai, president of self-ruled Taiwan, which China considers part of its territory. The foreign minister accused Taiwan of playing a "little trick", but the response was relatively muted as Taiwan's status is one of the most sensitive areas of Chinese government policy.
However, Mr Trump came out with fiery rhetoric on Twitter on Monday. “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 US doesn’t tax them) or to build a massive military complex in the middle of the South China Sea? I don’t think so!” Mr Trump wrote.
Even though Mr Trump is months away from assuming the presidency, the tweet throws him and his future administration firmly into one of the most potentially dangerous regional conflicts in the world. China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei claim parts or all of the energy-rich South China Sea, along whose sea-lanes trillions of dollars in trade passes every year.
During the election campaign Mr Trump promised he would brand China a currency manipulator for keeping the value of its currency artificially low to make Chinese products more attractive overseas.
His remarks are surprising, as the Trump transition team had seemed to be taking a more conciliatory approach. Vice president-elect Mike Pence described the call as simply a “courtesy” call, not a policy shift, dismissing it as a “tempest in a teapot”.
Mr Trump himself stressed that Ms Tsai called him, not the other way around. The Chinese foreign ministry said that it had lodged “solemn representations” with the US over the phone call and urged caution.
Taiwan has been a self-ruled rival of China since 1949, when the Kuomintang (KMT) escaped to Taiwan after losing the Civil War to the Communists, and the call was the first by a US president-elect or president since President Jimmy Carter adopted the one-China policy in 1979.
Between them, Mr Trump and Mr Pence have had more than 50 phone calls with foreign leaders so far, and have yet to get in touch with the State Department for information or recommendations about calling foreign leaders.
An editorial in the Global Times newspaper on Monday, which seemed to have been published before the Trump tweets, said it was more appropriate to punish Ms Tsai than Mr Trump who was, after all, a president-elect.
“China should understand Trump has two faces. On the one hand, he is bluffing and unpredictable, and on the other, he has no plan to overturn international relationships, and will focus on US internal affairs to ‘make America great again’. China should become skilful and tactful in dealing with the Trump government … We need to be clear-minded,” it said.
