Bull, Meet China Shop

Guess what, Donald: Actions have consequences.

Click here for an article in the Financial Times, by Demetri Sevastopulo and Geoff Dyer in Washington and Tom Mitchell in Beijing (with additional reporting by Lucy Hornby, Wan Li, Sherry Fei Ju and Archie Zhang in Beijing), entitled "China lodges formal protest after Donald Trump’s Taiwan call."

The Chinese government has lodged a formal protest with Washington. The article says:

“It must be pointed out that there is only one China in the world,” the Chinese foreign ministry said in a statement on Saturday, adding that it had lodged “solemn representations with the US”.

In a barb directed at Mr Trump’s unprecedented pre-inauguration intervention in US relations with China, the foreign ministry urged “the relevant parties . . . to handle issues related to Taiwan with caution and care in order to avoid unnecessary interference with overall Sino-US relations”.

Although it is not clear if the Trump transition team intended the conversation to signal a broader change in US policy towards Taiwan, the call has ruffled feathers in Beijing.

In Taiwan, the call is being seen as a breakout move that could strengthen its hand as the two superpowers realign their relationship in Asia. Taiwan has been alarmed by China’s tightening political control in Hong Kong, the former British colony.

So, as a result of Trump's thoughtlessness, China is offended and Taiwan is jubilant. While the Trump group try to claim the call was insignificant, the situation worries Americans working in China:

James Zimmerman, chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in China, said US businesses needed “certainty and stability”, and urged Mr Trump’s team “to get up to speed quickly on the historical tensions and complex dynamics of the region”.

Just before Trump's hamhanded intervention in foreign affairs, China’s President Xi Jinping met with Henry Kissinger in Beijing and said that Sino-US relations stood at a critical juncture:

“We are watching the situation very closely,” he told Mr Kissinger, who masterminded the Sino-US detente as President Richard Nixon’s secretary of state. “Now is a period of transition.”

Yes, by all means, China, watch closely as The Donald (aka The Orange Menace) skillfully weaves his web of international diplomacy. Well, actually they are watching closely, as the article points out:

Shi Yinhong, an international relations professor at Renmin University in Beijing, said Mr Trump was sending a “very clear” message. “The US president-elect hates China and will encourage Tsai to resist pressure from the mainland,” he said.

Evan Medeiros, a former Asia director at the White House national security council who now heads Asia research at Eurasia Group, said “the Chinese leadership will see this as a highly provocative action, of historic proportions".

Donald, why don't you take a break and chat with Philippines president Duterte and Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif? At least those conversations are amusing.