Trump Tweets Complaints About Chinese Economic And Military Policy
Posted: December 6, 2016 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: China, South China Sea, Trump, US, yuan exchange rate 10 Comments
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump speaks at a USA Thank You Tour event at U.S. Bank Arena in Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S., December 1, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Segar
Trump, who vowed during his campaign he would label China a currency manipulator, continued some of his hard-line rhetoric on Sunday.
By Roberta Rampton and Steve Holland 12/04/2016 11:19 pm ET | Updated 6 hours ago
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President-elect Donald Trump complained about Chinese economic and military policy on Twitter on Sunday, showing no signs of a conciliatory approach after a phone conversation with Taiwan’s president raised hackles in Beijing.
Trump’s unusual call with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen on Friday prompted a diplomatic protest with the United States on Saturday, although Vice President-elect Mike Pence downplayed its significance, saying it was a “courtesy” call, not intended to show a shift in U.S. policy on China.
Trump, who vowed during his campaign he would label China a currency manipulator, continued some of his hard-line rhetoric on Sunday.
“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!” Trump said on Twitter.
China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei claim parts or all of the energy-rich South China Sea, through which trillions of dollars in trade passes annually.
The diplomatic contretemps was one of several recently for the Republican president-elect, a real estate magnate who has never held public office and has no foreign affairs or military experience. Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20, is still considering whom to name as his secretary of state.
The call with Taipei was the first by a U.S. president-elect or president with a Taiwanese leader since President Jimmy Carter switched diplomatic recognition to China from Taiwan in 1979, acknowledging Taiwan as part of “one China.” China regards Taiwan as a renegade province.
China blamed Taiwan for the call, but also lodged a diplomatic protest with the United States on Saturday, saying the “one China” policy was the bedrock of relations between China and the United States.
Pence called the uproar over the call with “democratically elected” Tsai a “tempest in a teapot.” He blamed the media for the controversy, saying the call was similar in nature to one between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping after the Nov. 8 election.
“I think I would just say to our counterparts in China that this was a moment of courtesy. The president-elect talked to President Xi two weeks ago in the same manner. It was not a discussion about policy,” Pence said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
China’s Foreign Ministry said on Saturday it had lodged “stern representations” with what it called the “relevant U.S. side,” urging caution on the issue.
Pence said he was not aware of any contact between the Trump transition team and the Chinese government since Friday and did not expect Trump’s team to reach out this week to ease tensions with Beijing.
UNCONVENTIONAL DIPLOMACY
Trump and Pence have had more than 50 phone calls with foreign leaders so far. Pence said he spoke with Jordan’s King Abdullah on Saturday.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Sunday the Trump transition team had yet to contact the State Department for information and recommendations ahead of calls with foreign leaders.
“I do think there’s a value, obviously on having at least the recommendations, whether you choose to follow them or not is a different issue,” Kerry told a think-tank conference.
Trump, known for his unconventional approach to politics, has raised eyebrows with his initial forays into the complex web of international diplomacy as president-elect.
He has been praised by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has sparred with U.S. Democratic President Barack Obama over Russian actions in Ukraine and Syria. Putin said in an interview on Sunday that Trump was a “clever man.”
Last week, Trump offered to help Pakistan solve its problems and praised Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif as a “terrific guy” during a phone conversation, the Pakistani leader’s office said.
Asked on Sunday whether that meant Trump wanted to mediate the long-running border dispute between Pakistan and India, Pence acknowledged recent violence in the Kashmir region and said Trump wanted “continued U.S. engagement” with both sides.
Trump also spoke last week with Philippines leader Rodrigo Duterte, who said Trump showed understanding about a deadly crackdown on drug dealers. Duterte told Obama earlier this year to “go to hell” after Obama expressed concerns about possible human rights abuses in Duterte’s war on drugs.
FIELD WIDENS FOR SECRETARY OF STATE
Pence also said Trump may consider new candidates for secretary of state, America’s top diplomat, after having narrowed the field last week to four people: Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee; Rudy Giuliani, former mayor of New York; U.S. Senator Bob Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; and retired general and former CIA Director David Petraeus.
Trump met on Friday with John Bolton, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under Republican President George W. Bush.
Trump will have additional interviews with new candidates for secretary of state in the coming week, Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s senior adviser who managed his campaign, told reporters at Trump Tower on Sunday.
Among the new names: Jon Huntsman, a former ambassador to China and ex-Utah governor, Rex Tillerson, the chief executive of ExxonMobil, and retired Navy Admiral James Stavridis, a source familiar with the situation told Reuters.
Stavridis, a former supreme allied commander of NATO and dean of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, will meet with Trump on Thursday, said Stavridis’ spokeswoman, Juli Hanscom.
“There has been no discussion of a position in the Trump administration,” Hanscom said. Stavridis had been vetted to be the running mate of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
An Exxon spokesman declined comment. A representative for Huntsman did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Sunday.
(Additional reporting by Arshad Mohammed and John Whitesides in Washington and Melissa Fares in New York; Editing by Alan Crosby and Peter Cooney)
Source: Huffingtonpost.com “Trump Tweets Complaints About Chinese Economic And Military Policy”
Note: This is Huffington Post’s report I post here for readers’ information. It does not mean that I agree or disagree with the report’ views.
Tiananmen's Tremendous Achievements 
Dumb Trump just cancelled a fleet of Air Force One planes for future American presidents saying it will save $4 billion. What he never considered is he just costed hundreds of American jobs. If the order restart again in the future it will cost more and might even end up being made abroad. Is making America great again means cut back in production?
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The money saved by not building a fleet of new Air Force one planes will be applied to the advanced weapons on the drawing board for the American military
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START OF WORLD WAR III : A NEW HITLER/TOJO?
This Trump the Dumb has NO idea what he is talking about. The BIGGEST currency manipulator IS the U.S. of A. Sure Trump is aware of that? Or has been led by the nose by some neocon s he had just put into office or by the misleading psychopathic candidates he had been interviewing for top Administration jobs?
Perhaps it is still early in the day and Donald can still enjoy his honeymoon but it is becoming clear he is a white supremacist masquerading as nationalist Amerikan “defending” U.S.’s economic and miliitary “honor” in East Asia. In other words, he is a an ardent supporter of the racist white imperial U.S. empire. That IS Amerika’s interest.
He supports an Amerika creating trouble, tensions and conflicts here in East Asia. China has never attacked Amerika the way the nips attacked Pearl Harbour and the Amerikan colony of the Philippines, yet China is the enemy! And its island given to the aggressor defeated world war II country of Japan. What a convoluted pathological hypocrite of a purported global leader who is supposed to be for justice, liberty, equality, and fraternity. This Amerika is, no matter who is its the president, is the same. A psychopathic lying and aggressive country.
They conquered north America and decimated the non white native Indians there and they think they can do the same in the Far East. One suppose they will only be satisfied when they have exterminated the entire colored races in the name of reducing the unsustainable human population burden on this planet, leaving only the pure white race or any country that challenges its power. Shades of the supreme white Aryan race of Adolf Hitler.
Heil Hitler! Oops. I mean Heil Don Trump!
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China said that America was a has been and washed up. So lets see how China responds to this new muscular America under Donald Trump. No more weak Barak Obama.
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Trump tweets complains are highly irrelevant. He is just an irresponsible old head who don’t understand diplomacy, in fact he is an embarrassment to the White house and US state department. Whatever import duty or tax between Beijing and Washington has being bilaterally negotiated and agreed upon between previous administrations. These agreements have being formalised during the Clinton, Bush, Obama, etc administration according to the relevant economic and political conditions.
It’s like asking Trump did the US seek Iraqis permission to invade and slaughter over 3 million of it’s citizens, loot the Iraq oilfields and spiralled the Iraqi economy into poverty. Was there any compensation for the slaughter and sovereign countries invaded and destroyed. The same questions can be asked of Libya, Syria, Vietnam, etc.
As for massive military complex in the SCS, did the US seek permission from China to establish 50,000 US military personnel in Japan, approximately 40,000 dependents and another 5,500 American civilians employed there by the US dept.of defence. All up close to 100,000 plus aircraft carrier and warship sailors stationed in Japan on a rotation.
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Trump’s tweets are not only irrelevant, they are also incorrect.
First, the renminbi is not devalued — it is slightly overvalued at the moment. Second, China’s tariffs are not high — they are consistent with China’s obligations under the World Trade Organizations. Third, the United States does impose a tariff on Chinese imports. Finally, the Chinese bases in the South China Sea are not “massive” — they are modest in size.
Literally every word of his tweet is false. Trump simply does not care what the facts are.
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Agreed – he is an irresponsible old head jumping to conclusions.
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Did Ameica ask China if it was okay to print more money or to park a THADD missile defence system is South Korea? I don’t think so…..
Trump is talking trash. He might might not know the One China Policy was an agreement that help America’s foreign policy in East Asia bringing China around in exchange for recognising Taiwan as part of China. If the One China Policy was undermined it would mean America will no longer benefit from Chinese co-operation and the relationship will become a military confrontation. The sanction against North Korea will be scrapped were China is free to assist Pyongyang militarily. American military planes operating in Chinese ADIZ will be shot down and ships sunk, essentially SCS and ECS will become a no go area for American military. There will be no military contacts or warnings should China wishes to luanch a military offensive against America and its allies if there is a threat to Chinese soveriegnty.
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America does not need Chinese cooperation. And if you believe you can sink ships and shoot down aircraft in this so called Chinese “ADIZ” then you are welcome to try it. China has been talking tough for awhile. So now lets see China back up its words with action.
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It’s about time the USA elected a reckless white supremacist president. A president who thinks he used twitter to get his message across, influenced voters, win the presidency and now ignorantly thinks twitter will also have an impact on the non-English Chinese population. A president who thinks he can almost always get his way. Surely he won’t back down and with a confrontation with China on SCS, he will definitely give an order to attack China. China might be able to take back all of its territories and destroy all American bases in Asia, a chance China should not pass.
As an “Apprentice Politician”, with almost limited foreign policy experience, a childlike attitude, an obsessive manipulator, the American public might just get a chance to tell Donald Trump, “You’re fired!”.
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