Chinese state media slams Trump for his latest Taiwan comments

Chinese state media criticized President-elect Donald Trump on Monday after he hinted his administration might toss aside four decades of U.S. policy and not consider Taiwan part of one, united China.

The Global Times, in a biting editorial, called Trump “as ignorant as a child in terms of foreign policy” and warned him against a move that could rupture U.S.-China relations: “Listen clearly, the One-China policy cannot be traded.”

Trump’s comments on Fox News on Sunday morning took aim at Beijing just a week after he broke with long-standing precedent and accepted a call from Taiwan leader Tsai Ing-wen.

“I fully understand the One-China policy, but I don’t know why we have to be bound by a One-China policy unless we make a deal with China having to do with other things, including trade,” Trump said.

Trump’s call with Tsai marked the first direct contact between an incoming or current American president and Taiwan’s leader since the U.S. broke off formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan in 1979. Beijing considers the self-governing island a breakaway province and opposes any country’s attempt to recognize it. Both view themselves as the rightful governments of a united Chinese state.

Beijing lodged an official protest after the conversation but has not gone much further.

Trump told Fox News it would have appeared disrespectful not to take Tsai’s phone call. “Why should some other nation be able to say I can’t take a call?” he said on the news network.