President-elect Trump has not reached out to Chinese leaders to assuage their concerns after his controversial call with Taiwan’s president last week, Vice President-elect Mike Pence said Sunday.
A 10-minute phone call between the incoming Republican president and Taiwan’s Tsai Ing-wen last Friday set off a media firestorm and raised serious questions about diplomatic relations under the next administration. China considers Taiwan to be a wayward province and no American president has spoken with the leader of Taiwan for more than three decades.
Nevertheless, Pence said the phone call between Trump and Tsai was nothing but a “moment of courtesy.” He noted that Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke two weeks ago “in the same manner that was not a discussion about policy.”
Asked whether Trump plans to contact Chinese officials to discuss their concerns, Pence told NBC News’ Chuck Todd he “wouldn’t expect so.”
“To be honest with you, the waters here seem like a little bit of a tempest in a teapot,” Pence said. “I mean, it’s striking to me that President Obama would reach out to a murdering dictator in Cuba and be hailed as a hero. And President-elect Donald Trump takes a courtesy call from the democratically elected president of Taiwan and it becomes something of a thing in the media.”
He continued, “I think most Americans and frankly most leaders around the world know this for what it was. And it’s all part and parcel.”
In a series of tweets on Saturday, Trump said Taiwan’s leader called him to offer her congratulations on his stunning election victory. “Interesting how the U.S. sells Taiwan billions of dollars of military equipment but I should not accept a congratulatory call,” he tweeted.
