A redux of a controversial phone call between President Trump and Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen doesn’t seem likely.
Though Tsai says that a conversation could take place, following the one they shared in December, Trump isn’t too keen on it, citing the U.S. relationship with China.
“Look, my problem is I have established a very good personal relationship with President Xi,” Trump told Reuters Thursday. “I really feel that he is doing everything in his power to help us with a big situation,” he added, referring to the role China could play in pressuring North Korea to lay off its nuclear weapons program.
“So I wouldn’t want to be causing difficulty right now for him,” Trump continued. “I think he’s doing an amazing job as a leader and I wouldn’t want to do anything that comes in the way of that. So I would certainly want to speak to him first.”
In early December, it was revealed that Trump, then-president-elect, spoke over the phone with Tsai, who offered her congratulations to Trump for his election win.
The call is widely believed to be the first between a U.S. president or president-elect and a leader of Taiwan since 1979, when diplomatic relations between the two were cut off. China regards Taiwan, a nearly 14,000 square-mile island off its coast, as a renegade province which should be returned to China ever since Gen. Chiang Kai-shek fled mainland China to Taiwan in 1949.
The U.S. adopted a “One China” policy to help facilitate diplomacy with Beijing in 1972, and President Jimmy Carter formally recognized Beijing as the sole government of China in 1978. The U.S. embassy in Taiwan’s capital, Taipei, was closed in 1979.
Tsai traveled to the U.S. in January, but did not meet with Trump. Meanwhile Trump has shared multiple phone calls with China and hosted President Xi Jinping at the Mar-a-Lago earlier this month.
