Ammon News - Donald Trump said on Wednesday he would speak to Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te, an unprecedented move for a US leader that could roil US relations with China.

“I’ll speak to him,” the US president told reporters at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland before boarding Air Force One when asked about Lai. “I speak to everybody … We’ll work on that, the Taiwan problem.”

Responding to Trump’s comments on Thursday morning, Taiwan’s foreign ministry said Lai would be happy to speak to the US leader, according to Reuters.

US and Taiwanese presidents have not spoken directly since Washington shifted diplomatic recognition to Beijing from Taipei in 1979. However, as president-elect in late 2016, Trump broke decades of diplomatic precedent when he spoke to then-Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen.

The political fallout from that call saw China’s government lodge a complaint with the US government, while Trump’s transition team played down the significance of the conversation.


The Guardian