China Herald: How Trump´s Taiwan call made Asia safer

Shaun Rein

Unlike most observers and diplomatic professionals, strategy analyst Shaun Rein sees president-elect´s Trump´s call to Taiwan as a brilliant move, with only a little downside, he writes in CNN. By getting this leverage, he proves to move smarter than president Obama, writes Rein.

Shaun Rein:

The reality is that Trump's move to speak on the phone with President Tsai is brilliant and has little downside.

With a simple 10-minute phone call, rather than selling billions of arms to Taiwan, Trump shows American strength in the Asia-Pacific region and may well actually making the region safer.

Unlike President Barack Obama and his Asia pivot policy, which the Chinese have generally ignored -- as evidenced by their continued reclamation of land in the South China Sea -- they are now going to pause and rethink all of their strategies to take Trump seriously.

Nothing is more sacred to Beijing than one-party rule and sovereignty over land and ocean that China considers its own. Everything else is open to negotiation.

Trump has not said that he doesn't acknowledge the One-China policy, nor is he the actual president yet.

By having a call now before he is sworn in, he will have additional leverage to negotiate with China on more core American interests than the matter of Taiwan - for instance, open shipping lanes in the South China Sea, reduced cybersecurity risks emanating from China, and less protectionism and unfair competition for American business interests in China.

More in CNN.
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