A 20-day tenure as President, Donald trump held, finally, his first conversation with his Chinese counterpart.
During the “extremely cordial” conversation, he said to XI Jinping that the United States will respect the policy of “one China”. And although this is slightly reduced tensions between the two leading economies of the world, potential fire hazards still remain.
One of them can become the democratic aspirations of the free Chinese city of Hong Kong. Organization of Pro-independence Hong Kong on Wednesday sent a letter to the White house, urging trump to use the powers of his Executive power and stop the constant encroachment of Beijing on rights and freedoms of this city.
“Obstructing the actions of an arrogant, lawless and dishonest Communist regime attempting to cause damage to the world through Hong Kong, in the General interests of the United States and our city”, — reads the statement of the National party of Hong Kong.
“We see that most of the crew of the tramp is solid, strong and hostile position toward China,” said TIME caller, Chan Ho ting (Chan Ho-tin).
During the election campaign trump is much more hostile comments about China than the other candidates. He was repeatedly subjected to the criticism of Beijing, and during a debate with Hillary Clinton falsely stated that climate change is invented by the Chinese fake. He also accused China that “uses our country as a piggy Bank for their own development”. After the election, trump also said that while the two countries “make a deal”, the United States should not “bound” due to the fact that 40 years recognize China as one.
And then Trump called President of Taiwan, Cai Invent, and between them held a conversation, provoking a frenzied reaction from the Chinese mainland, as well as the sharp response of Beijing, who said that the rapprochement between the U.S. and Taiwan “unthinkable.”
And when the Senate considered the nomination of Rex Tillerson to the post of Secretary of state, he said that the construction of China’s paramilitary artificial Islands in the South China sea “is akin to the seizure of Crimea by Russia”, and also invited US to deny Beijing access to these Islands. His statements in the days that followed provoked an angry reaction from Chinese authorities and state media.
And recently the Minister of defence James Mattis during his visit to Japan and South Korea, assured Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that the effect of the us-Japan security Treaty continues to apply to a group of disputed Islands in the East China sea that the Japanese call Senkaku and the Chinese Diaoyu.
At some point there were concerns about the fact that relations between the US and China can go in a descending order, and after saying Tillerson Chinese state media warned that “the two sides should prepare for a military confrontation”.
However, an authority on China Willy Lam (Willy Lam) told TIME, that according to the call of the trump and sent them in the name of si letter, stating that he is determined to “constructive relationship”, the American leader started to tone down anti-China rhetoric — at least not yet.
These cases “show that trump may refrain from executing the threats he had voiced during the presidential race, for example, calling China a currency machination and promising to impose a 25 percent tariff on Chinese products,” lamb said.
In his opinion, China was somewhat hopeful that trump will abandon his campaign Prezista and show a willingness to negotiate.
“To predict anything about trump is very difficult, but it seems that he is inclined to negotiate,” added Lam.
Turning to the issue of whether the administration is trump to strongly defend the freedom of Taiwan and Hong Kong the face of Chinese pressure, LEM has noticed that in relations of Washington and Beijing, they will simply “Taiwan map” and the Hong Kong map”. “I don’t think he is really going to support the democratic rights of Taiwan and Hong Kong,” said he TIME.
