[Right Scoop] Bolton responded to the news of a phone call between Trump and Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, which caused China to submit a complaint with the US through its foreign ministry.
"Honestly, I think we should shake the relationship up. For the past several years China has made aggressive... belligerent claims in the South China Sea," he said on Fox & Friends.
Beijing views Taiwan as a rebel province of mainland China, and the United States has recognized China’s claim since President Jimmy Carter officially acknowledged the "one China" policy in 1979.
Therefore, Trump’s discussion with Tsai has been seen by some as a breach of protocol, but Bolton disagreed:
"Nobody in Beijing gets to dictate who we talk to. It’s ridiculous to think that the phone call upsets decades of anything."
While he makes a decent argument for doing what Trump did, it seems like a lot of patching up afterward instead of a reasoned policy decision. |