Showing posts with label Tsai Ing-wen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tsai Ing-wen. Show all posts

Monday, December 5, 2016

Taiwan Pres. calls Trump



Okay, Donald Trump broke protocol with mainland China by even taking the phone call from Taiwan's President, Tsai Ing-wen--if, in fact, she did call--something that quickly came to the attention of China's President, Xi Jinping. No repercussions yet, but the political experts believe China is laying low to try and figure out the new U.S. President-elect. Good luck on that one. But most feel they will make their move and it might not be pleasing.

But what should be noted here is the fact that even weeks before this mysterious call, a "businesswoman claiming to be associated with Trump's conglomerate made inquiries about a major investment in building luxury hotels as part of the island’s new airport development." The woman reported as Ms. Chen arrived from the U.S. to meet...
"the mayor of Taoyuan, Cheng Wen-tsan, one of the senior politicians involved in the Aerotropolis project, a large urban development being planned around the renovation of Taiwan’s main airport, Taoyuan International."
The above in September, and then in November, Nicola Smith of the Guardian reports...
..."a Chen Si-Ting, a US citizen of Taiwanese origin, had given a speech at a Friends of Trump banquet in central Taipei. Chen claimed at the event on 1 November that Trump’s company was interested in investing in Taiwan and that his son, Eric, would visit the island before the end of the year."
Coincidence, or strategic planning by the Trump family? Of course the man isn't yet President, his promise to leave the Trump organization behind was after he became President, but this looks like a clear use of the American Presidency, even significantly breaking diplomatic protocol to do it, to further Donald Trump business interests. Separately...
"...Anne-Marie Donoghue, who describes herself as the global head of transient sales and Asia at Trump Hotels, was confirmed to have been in Taiwan in October."
C'mon now, where are all the Republicans asking for an investigation of this possible egregious conflict of interest?

Has Donald Trump made a major diplomatic faux pas?


China Pres, Xi Jinping
Donald Trump exclaimed with glee that he was putting all his business interests aside because it was more important that he run the government. And then he "innocently" accepts a phone call from the President of Taiwan, breaking a protocol dating back to 1979 when mainland china was recognized as China's government. But hold on, what about that new hotel in Taiwan that had been in the works weeks before the mysterious phone call.

Lawrence O'Donnell, on MSNBC, in covering the Taiwan call, also mentioned the fact that Trump was in contact with Rodrigo Duterte, Pres. of the Philippines, noting that he had called Barack Obama a "Son of a whore" again. O'Donnell continued that Duterte was the "craziest and possibly most dangerous elected politician in the world...as of now." The emphasis is my own but put there to question whether it might be predicting a future Donald Trump.

In consideration of the breach of protocol alone, Trump or his incompetent minions may not think it is important that they have in effect held Beijing in disrespect, but you can bet China's President, Xi Jinping, is watching every move Donald Trump makes and will take appropriate steps. Jinping was educated in the U.S. and is well aware of our customs here but the President-elects Taiwan move caught the country off guard:
"Breaking decades of American diplomatic practice, he caught the Chinese government off guard by lunging into the most sensitive of its so-called core interests, the 'One China' policy agreed to by President Richard M. Nixon more than four decades ago."
So much for diplomacy with a nation that we need to keep on the good side of not only for trade, but in the interest of a more stable world. But the real story here is the fact that political pundits question whether a major reason he took that call from Taiwan’s president, Tsai Ing-wen, was to firm up their relationship in order to obtain more favorable arrangements for building a hotel in the country. That would of course be a major conflict of interest which is my next post today.

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