Yesterday, the news media was abuzz with accounts of President-elect Donald Trump's alleged conversations with Taiwan's President Tsai Ing Wen and Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. According to news articles, the implication was that Trump didn't know what he was doing and was bumbling ahead in international affairs, creating diplomatic chaos. The conversation with the Taiwanese President seems to have created a bigger controversy than the one with the Pakistani PM, mainly because India had not filed a protest while China immediately filed a protest claiming that Trump had broken some sort of a sacred agreement in talking to the Taiwanese President. China, incidentally, files an official protest if our ships sail too close to their shores without "official" permission! I don't put much stock into their "protests," official or not! I hate to say this, but it seems to be in China's DNA to file a protest at the slightest "provocation" as they see it, whether justified or not.
For those who may be a bit fuzzy on the history of our relationship with Taiwan, let me refresh it. When Chang Kai Sheik fled to Taiwan in 1949 and established the Republic of China government there, we recognized it immediately as the legitimate government of China while we ignored mainland China which became the communist state of People's Republic of China. We, essentially ignored the existence of a country that was the size of the United States with billions in population. However, in 1972 Richard Nixon paid a surprise visit to Beijing and made "peace" with PRC, who until that point had been our deadly enemy. We had fought a bloody war against the Chinese Communists in Korea for three years and fought for a decade in Vietnam where our enemy the North Vietnamese, were supported by the Chinese.
After Nixon's historic visit to China, we developed a sort of a two China policy. Neither the mainland China nor Taiwan were happy about it. Both insisted that we should have a one China policy. Then in 1979 we abruptly broke our diplomatic ties with Republic of China in Taiwan and established formal diplomatic ties with mainland China. Prior to this, we had promised Taiwan (Republic of China) that we would stand by their side to the bitter end, never abandon them. Of course we made the same promise to the Republic of South Vietnam that we abandoned without ceremony in 1975. So the fact that we dumped Republic of China in 1979, our long-time ally (dating back to pre-World War Two) that we supported for almost a half a century, didn't really surprise some. But there were others that were very much disturbed by this, in fact ashamed of our government's lack of loyalty.
Since 1979, Taiwan has been a non-entity as far as our government was concerned. Never mind that our trade with that island nation amounted to billions and helped to grow our own economy. They were a step child, no, an illegitimate child when it came to official recognition and relations. We don't have an embassy or any kind of a diplomatic mission in Taiwan. Instead, we have the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) which functions like an embassy but staffed with "unofficial" personnel with no official status! Taiwan in turn has no embassy or consulate in the U.S., instead it has a commercial or trade office. Yet, Taiwan was able to build itself into an economic powerhouse in Asia and is one of the Asian "tigers" in the region for their economic wealth and power. Taiwan has also built itself into a military power in the region. It may not have an army as large as mainland China's millions, but it is modern and well equipped. This they managed to do despite the fact that we cut off all military ties with Taiwan after 1979. It is an extremely important country in that region
both economically and politically in keeping China in check.
Not surprisingly, Taiwan's closest ally in the region is South Korea. The two countries share commercial as well as military exchange of all sorts and travel between the two countries is very free. Japan is still building its military defensive capability. It will take a while since Japan has refrained from building its military for so many years. So, South Korea and Taiwan are the only two deterrents in Northeast Asia against China's ambitions in the region. China would never risk a war against Russia, but they have been known to make incursions into smaller neighbors by proxy or directly as they have in Tibet in the late 1950s and in Vietnam in 1979-80.
If truth be known, neither South Korea nor Taiwan is capable of stopping China on its own. However, the two combined, with support from the U.S., could really pose a major problem for China, and China knows it. Interestingly, currently the biggest trading partner for both South Korea and Taiwan is China!
Since 1979, whenever a new U.S. president was elected, the president of Taiwan placed a congratulatory call. Apparently the normal practice of the newly elected U.S. president was to not take the call and have the secretary or whoever, thank the caller politely and hang up. It seems that Trump decided to take the call and chatted with President Tsai of Taiwan. Incidentally, President Tsai Ing Wen, the first woman president of Taiwan, is a graduate of Cornell University and holds a doctorate of law from Cornell Law School. So, she is U.S. educated, and frankly, no reason why Trump should not have chatted with her. Trump detractors have jumped on this claiming that he has started a diplomatic maelstrom, that he did this because of his personal business interests, etc., etc. I don't believe Trump talked to Tsai for the benefit of his business interests, nor did he do it out of ignorance and lack of understanding of international relations, as some claim. I think he simply wants to take our foreign policy in a different direction, and it doesn't mean that he wants to break with China, it simply means that he wants to change our way of doing business in the region.
Trump also talked at length with the Prime Minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif. Pakistan is a country that is vitally important to us in our fight against Islamic Terror groups like Al Qaeda. Neither George W. Bush nor Barak Obama have had much success dealing with Pakistan. Frankly, our relationship with that country has been dismal. I think Trump's attempt to patch things with Pakistan is a good thing, considering that most think that Trump is anti Muslim.
No doubt Trump's detractors (haters) will continue to harp on how he has started to destroy our relations with China and India (India being Pakistan's enemy!) so on and so forth. I am neither a Trump hater nor supporter, but I really think that folks are overreacting. Besides, I think what he did so far was long over due. We have treated Taiwan very badly in the past, and if his telephone conversation with President Tsai is going to salve some of the old wounds, then that's good. If it miffed the Communist Party members in Beijing, so be it. I'll guarantee you that China will not break relations with us over this or cause any other problems, we are just too important to them, financially! As for his conversation with Sharif of Pakistan, well, if India gets angry, like China, so be it. India needs us much more than we need them. Of course we need their cheap labor, telephone answering services, etc., although I find it very frustrating talking to someone in Bombay over my problems with a phone line or TV reception!
Yes, Trump's actions have stirred up some controversy. But it isn't as if he declared war on someone, at least not yet!
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