China will ‘take the gloves off’ over Taiwan — media

Donald Trump has irked Beijing by suggesting the One China policy could become a bargaining chip in trade with the world’s second-largest economy.
(AFP)

BEIJING — China is running out of patience with Donald Trump’s stance on Taiwan, state media said on Monday, and will “take the gloves off” if he keeps challenging the One China policy.

The US president-elect told the Wall Street Journal over the weekend the longstanding policy was up for negotiation, in his latest comment on the issue.

Trump had already irked China by accepting a congratulatory phone call from Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-Wen after he won the presidential election, upending decades of diplomatic precedent in which the US avoided direct public communication with the island’s leader.

The foreign ministry, for the second time in two days, warned Trump Monday the One China policy was non-negotiable.

Anyone who tries to use it as a bargaining chip will be met with “common opposition” and will ultimately “shoot oneself in the foot,” Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a regular briefing.

The China Daily said in an editorial earlier Monday that Trump “will seldom be given the benefit of the doubt twice, because doing the same thing for a third time shows intent.”

The Taiwan issue is a “Pandora’s box of lethal potential,” it added.

While the president-elect had been given the benefit of the doubt so far, it said, if he is “determined to use this gambit on taking office, a period of fierce, damaging interactions will be unavoidable as Beijing will have no choice but to take off the gloves.”

Trump has threatened to get tough with what he sees as unfair Chinese trade practices and suggested that the One China policy could become a bargaining chip in this.
“Everything is under negotiation, including One China,” he told the Journal in the interview published Friday.