Trump talk with Taiwan leader just a courtesy call, US VP-elect Pence says
.png?itok=arIb17P0)
US president-elect Donald Trump’s controversial telephone conversation with the leader of Taiwan was just a “courtesy call”, US vice-president-elect Mike Pence said on Sunday.
“It was nothing more than taking a courtesy call from a democratically elected leader,” Pence told ABC News, speaking about the Friday call between Trump and Taiwan’s Tsai Ing-wen, which broke decades of US diplomatic policy and risks creating a serious rift with Beijing.
Watch: Trump talks by phone with Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen
No US president or president-elect has spoken to a Taiwanese leader since then-president Richard Nixon agreed in 1978 to Beijing’s one-China policy.
Beijing regards self-ruling Taiwan as part of its own territory awaiting reunification, and any US move implying support for independence – even calling Tsai “president,” as Trump did in a tweet announcing the call – prompts grave offence in Beijing.
Watch: China labels Trump call “petty action” by Taiwan
Mainland Chinese state media said Trump’s “inexperience” led him to accept the phone call, but warned that any breach of the one-China policy would “destroy” Sino-US relations.
