Exclusive: Taiwan president says phone
call with Trump can take place again
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[April 27, 2017]
By Jean Yoon and J.R. Wu
TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan President Tsai
Ing-wen said another direct phone call with U.S. President Donald Trump
could take place again and she urged the self-ruled island's political
rival China to step up to its global responsibility to keep the peace as
a large nation.
"We have the opportunity to communicate more directly with the U.S.
government," Tsai told Reuters in an exclusive interview on Thursday.
"We don't exclude the opportunity to call President Trump himself, but
it depends on the needs of the situation and the U.S. government's
consideration of regional affairs."
The interview was the first since Trump, as U.S. President-elect, took a
congratulatory phone call from Tsai in early December.
It was the first contact between a leader of Taiwan and an incumbent or
incoming U.S. president in nearly four decades and Trump cast doubt on
Washington's long-standing policy of acknowledging Beijing's "one China"
policy, which claims Taiwan is a part of China.
The call angered Beijing because it forbids contact between government
heads and Taiwan's leader, for fear of such contacts would confer
sovereignty on the island. Democratic Taiwan, self-ruled since 1949, has
no interest in being ruled by autocratic China.
However, Trump agreed to honour the "one China" policy in February and
then hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping at his Florida resort earlier
this month.
F-35 REQUEST
Despite this, Tsai said Taiwan's ties with the United States have been
improving. She said Taiwan may need to buy from its sole arms supplier
the most advanced stealth jet in the U.S. arsenal.
"We don't rule out any items that would be meaningful to our defence and
our defence strategy and the F-35 is one such item," said Tsai, in the
first remarks by a top Taiwanese official on the matter.
Taiwan will eventually have to submit a weapons purchase list during
talks with Washington. Tsai said, however, senior officials were not yet
in place in the Trump administration to handle the issue.
China's Defence Ministry said on Thursday it was resolutely opposed to
any country selling arms to Taiwan.
Ministry spokesman Yang Yujun made the comment at a monthly news
briefing in Beijing when asked about the possible sale of F-35 fighter
jets from the United States to Taiwan.
Speaking from the Presidential Office as she nears her first year
anniversary in office, Tsai urged Xi to act like a leader.
Beijing has never renounced the use of force to bring the island under
its control, and froze official communication channels with Taipei soon
after Tsai and her independence-leaning party took power.
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Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen poses for photographs during an
interview with Reuters at the Presidential Office in Taipei, Taiwan
April 27, 2017. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu
Tsai has said she wants to maintain peace with China, but that her
government won't bow to pressure from China.
WHO MEETING
China continues to pressure Taiwan, Tsai said, adding that the
upcoming May meeting of the decision-making body of the World Health
Organization (WHO) would be an important benchmark for relations
between the two sides.
Taiwan has said it is facing a more complicated task this year in
securing an invitation for the meeting after Beijing last year
warned that acceptance of the "one China" principle was a condition
for Taiwan's attendance.
Most major nations and multilateral organizations, like the WHO
which falls under the United Nations, formally recognise China.
When she first took office, China slammed Tsai's inaugural speech as
offering an "incomplete answer" to what it called the exam on
bilateral relations.
Tsai said: "Why not say we both are facing a new exam. We also look
forward to China using a different perspective to face this new
exam."
"China now needs to have its own sense of responsibility," Tsai
said, adding that the world was changing and China must change too.
"I hope Chairman Xi Jinping, as a leader of a large country and who
sees himself as a leader, can show a pattern and flexibility, use a
different angle to look at cross-Strait relations, and allow the
future of cross-Strait ties to have a different kind of pattern."
Recalling her historic call with Trump, Tsai talked about more
possibilities.
"My first feeling was that this is a new (Trump) government and
perhaps under this new government there will be many different
possibilities that appear," Tsai said.
Tsai tweeted congratulations to Trump minutes after he took office
in January, and when asked if she might tweet him again, Tsai said:
"Might not be a bad idea. I'll give some thought to it."
(Reporting by Jean Yoon and J.R. Wu; Editing by Bill Tarrant)
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