BEIJING: China has played down fears of any trade war with America under Donald Trump’s presidency but said the new administration has a “responsibility” to honour the promise of previous US governments to abide by ‘one-China’ policy on Taiwan.
“The one-China principle is the political foundation of China-US relations. Any US administration has the responsibility to honour the bipartisan commitment of successive US governments to continue to uphold the one-China principle,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told media here, outlining China’s “expectations” of Trump.
The US ties with Taiwan should be handled properly and prudently, she said, refraining from commenting on Trump’s inaugural address. However, she asserted that there won’t be any winner in any trade war between the two countries as US-China trade has created 2.6 million jobs in US. “On Trump’s inauguration speech emphasising about making US first, he talked mainly about the domestic policies of the US. For evaluation of the speech better ask Americans,” Hua said, declining to join issue on the point of ‘America first’. “We believe in building community of shared future for the mankind. In the era of globalisation, countries interests are closely integrated and interdependent. No one can stand aloof. China will work with all parties to jointly shoulder responsibilities and will continue pursue domestic and foreign policies in keeping national realities,” she said. However, she outlined that following one-China policy is Beijing’s major expectation from Trump. “We urge the new US administration to fully recognise the sensitivity of the Taiwan issue and continue to uphold one-China policy and uphold the political foundation of the China-US relations,” she said, commenting for the first time after Trump took over office on January 20. Her comments followed emphatic assertions by Trump after his election that one-China policy on Taiwan is up for negotiation and that he is not fully committed to it. “Everything is under negotiation including one-China,” Trump had said on January 15, questioning the decades old policy followed by Washington. China had hit back saying one-China policy which stipulates that Taiwan is part of Chinese mainland is “non-negotiable”. China regards Taiwan as a breakaway province and insist all countries having bilateral ties with it to abide by the one-China policy. “Our overall expectations for China-US ties under Trump administration is that history and practice has shown that stable and consistent development of bilateral ties severed the interests of both the people and two countries and good for the peace and stability of the Asia Pacific and world,” she said. “China and US have extensive and common interests, while we also have differences. The two sides should respect each other s core interests and major concerns and take a constructive approach to resolve our differences and do not let them to disturb over all interests of the bilateral relations,” she said.—PTI
