e_Paper, Tuesday, December 13, 2016

10
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2016
DT
World
China warns Trump over Taiwan policy
• AFP, Beijing
China expressed “serious concern”
on Monday after US President-elect
Donald Trump said the United
States did not necessarily have to
stick to its long-held stance that
Taiwan is part of “one China”, calling
it the basis for relations.
Beijing issued its first clear warning
Monday over Donald Trump’s
fiery rhetoric, as state media said
the Asian giant could back “forces
hostile to the US” if the president-elect
follows through with
threats to drop Washington’s One
China policy.
It was the strongest signal yet
from Chinese authorities that abandoning
the One China policy, which
guides relations with self-ruling
Taiwan, would upset decades of
carefully managed Sino-US relations
and end cooperation between
the world’s top two economies.
Beijing has not controlled Taiwan
for more than 60 years but
foreign ministry spokesman Geng
Shuang said it considered the island
a “core interest” that affected
China’s sovereignty and territorial
integrity.
The One China policy was the
“political bedrock” for relations
with the US, he added, and if it
was “compromised or disrupted”,
sound and steady growth in China-US
relations and cooperation in
major fields would be “out of the
question”, he told reporters.
The comments came in response
to Trump’s remarks in an interview
Sunday that he did not see why
Washington must “be bound by a
One China policy unless we make
a deal with China having to do with
other things, including trade”.
Although the US is Taiwan’s main
ally and arms supplier, Washington
has not had official diplomatic relations
with Taipei since 1979, when
it switched recognition to Beijing.
Trump’s decision to take the call
broke with protocol, and seemed
to catch China’s Communist Party
leadership by surprise.
The official response was initially
muted, and state media largely
blamed Taiwan for the phone call and
advocated a wait-and-see response.
But the remarks on Monday were
more pointed, and a commentary
in the nationalistic Global Times
offered a more menacing warning
to Trump, calling him “as ignorant
of diplomacy as a child”, in its Chinese-language
version.
‘Novice’
Despite the escalation in official
rhetoric, many Chinese analysts
still offer a note of restraint, emphasising
Trump’s background in
business, not politics, and the possibility
his actions in office will take
a softer line.
“I think this could be his negotiating
technique because he knows
the Taiwan issue is an extremely
sensitive issue, an issue China is
very concerned about,” Wu Xinbo,
director of the Center for American
Studies at Fudan University in
Shanghai, said.
Trump last week appointed Iowa
Governor Terry Branstad, who is
personally acquainted with Chinese
President Xi Jinping, as ambassador
to Beijing, which hailed the nominee
as a “friend of China”. •
UNITED STATES AND CHINA
ECONOMY
GDP
2015
In $ trillions
17.95
10.87
MILITARY
2015 military expenditure
In billions of dollars
USA
$596.02
Sources: World Bank/SIPRI
Reserves
2015
In $ trillions
3.41
Annual GDP growth
In %
15
11.4
10
5
0
-5
-10
0.38 -15
3.3
2005 2010
RUSSIA
$66.42
INDIA
$51.26
2015
6.9
2.4
CHINA
$214.79
GDP per capita
In dollars
44,308
55,837
AUSTRALIA
$23.59
2005
2015
1,740
JAPAN
$40.89
7,925
SOUTH KOREA
$36.43
Tillerson choice raises
questions of corporate v
national interest
The central question facing Exxon Mobil
Corp Chief Executive Rex Tillerson
if he becomes US secretary of state is
whether a lifelong oil man with close
ties to Russia can pivot from advancing
corporate interests to serving the national
interest.
Tillerson, 64, got his start as a production
engineer at Exxon in 1975 and
has worked there ever since, running
business units in Yemen, Thailand and
Russia before being named chief executive
in 2006. He was expected to
retire next year.
Senior senators, both Democrats
and Republicans, have expressed
concern over Tillerson, who emerged
this weekend as Donald Trump’s expected
pick for secretary of state, according
to a source familiar with the
situation. By choosing him, the president-elect
would add another - and
presumably highly influential - person
to his Cabinet and circle of advisers
who may favour a soft line toward
Moscow.
Among these is Trump’s choice
for national security adviser, Michael
Flynn, who raised eyebrows when he
sat beside Russian President Vladimir
Putin at a Moscow banquet last year
and who has argued that the United
States and Russia should collaborate
to end Syria’s civil war and to defeat
Islamic State militants.
Tillerson’s links with Russia came under
fire from top lawmakers on Sunday.
‘A straight arrow’?
Many US officials are worried by Russia’s
increasingly aggressive behaviour.
It annexed Crimea from Ukraine in
2014, has supported Syrian President
Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian civil war
and is accused of interfering in US domestic
politics.
US intelligence analysts have concluded
that Russia intervened in the
2016 election to help Trump defeat
Hillary Clinton, and not just to undermine
confidence in the US electoral
system, a senior US official said.
In his role at Exxon, Tillerson maintained
close ties with Putin and opposed
US sanctions against Russia for
its incursion into Crimea.
Trump praised Tillerson, saying
on his Twitter account on Saturday:
“Whether I choose him or not for
“State”- Rex Tillerson, the Chairman
& CEO of ExxonMobil, is a world class
player and dealmaker. Stay tuned!”
Reince Priebus, the Republican National
Committee chairman who has
been tapped to serve as White House
chief of Staff, praised Tillerson’s relationship
with Putin.
However, Senator Robert Menendez
of New Jersey, a senior Democratic
member of the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee that would weigh Tillerson’s
nomination, was unsparing in his criticism
of the possible appointment. •
Source: REUTERS
Donald Trump
Trump faces an early test with
Republicans over Russia
• Tribune International Desk
President-elect Donald Trump is
facing an early test with fellow Republicans
over US relations with
Russia, as lawmakers seek to investigate
a CIA assessment that Russia
interfered in the November election
and issue warnings over the incoming
president’s potential pick for
secretary of state, reports the Associated
Press.
Trump said Sunday the recent
CIA assertion that Russian hacking
had sought to help his candidacy
was “ridiculous,” and he praised
ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson, who
has emerged as the leading contender
to lead the State Department.
But two key Senate Republicans
— John McCain of Arizona and
Lindsey Graham of South Carolina,
a leading Trump critic — joined with
two Democrats in seeking a bipartisan
investigation into the Kremlin’s
activities during the election. And
McCain, the party’s 2008 presidential
nominee, questioned whether
Trump should nominate Tillerson,
citing the executive’s longstanding
business ties with Moscow.
Russia expects to figure prominently
at the start of a week in
which Trump is expected to name
more members of his Cabinet,
which also has vacancies in the departments
of Energy, Agriculture
and Veterans Affairs.
Trump’s transition team announced
Monday that his choice to
head the Department of Homeland
Security is, as expected, General
John Kelly. Kelly is a former commander
of US Southern Command
with “unique insight into some of
the challenges the United States
faces at its southern border,” the
announcement said.
During his campaign, Trump
weathered turbulent relations with
REUTERS
fellow Republicans but has since
forged a more united front with
GOP lawmakers since his November
victory over Hillary Clinton.
The CIA recently concluded
with “high confidence” that Russia
sought to influence the US election
on behalf of Trump, raising red
flags among lawmakers concerned
about the sanctity of the US voting
system and potentially straining
relations at the start of Trump’s administration.
Trump’s decision-making on
whom to select for secretary of
state has stretched out over several
weeks. He has been considering
former Massachusetts Governor
Mitt Romney, a one-time vocal
Trump critic, Senator Bob Corker
of Tennessee, who leads the Foreign
Relations Committee, and
Tillerson, the oil industry executive
who met twice with Trump
during the past week. •