China threatened to “take off the gloves” if President-elect Donald Trump keeps needling Beijing, the country’s state-run media reported Monday.
Trump suggested Friday that the longtime US policy of recognizing one China to exclude Taiwan is up for negotiation.
China is already livid with Trump for speaking with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen last month, the first time an American president or president-elect has publicly acknowledged chatting with Taiwan’s leader in nearly 40 years.
“If Trump 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,” the English-language China Daily said in an editorial.
It accused the president-elect of “playing with fire.”
China’s Global Times, which is also state-owned, took a shot at Trump as well, calling him “inexperienced” and “complacent,” and warned the president-elect against using the “trump” card of Taiwan as he shakes up American foreign policy.
“In the past, Trump infuriated us, but now we find him risible. With a skyrocketing ascent in his political life, he has been stunningly confident in his ostensible knowledge of the job, though he speaks like a rookie,” the newspaper said.
The country’s foreign ministry also cautioned Trump against trying to use Taiwan’s status as a bargaining chip.
“Not everything in the world can be bargained or traded off,” ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunyingb said.
“Whoever attempts to harm the one-China principle out of any motive or uses the principle as a bargaining chip will definitely be facing broad and strong opposition from the Chinese government and people, as well as the international community,” Hua said.
In 1979, Washington switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing and acknowledged the Chinese position that there is only “one China.”
With Post wires