Beijing Pathetic Monologue: China repeats call to block President Tsai's transit in US.

Tsai Ing-wen will visit Houston and San Francisco on her way to and from Latin America

By Nandini Krishnamoorthy

Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen (pictured speaking to US President Donald Trump at her office in Taipei, Taiwan) might meet Trump in January during her trip to three Central American nations
Taiwan announced its President Tsai Ing-wen's itinerary for US where she will transit through Houston and San Francisco on her way to visit allies in Latin America in January, her office said on Friday (30 December). 

The announcement has prompted Beijing to repeat calls to the US to block Tsai's stopover.
Tsai will arrive in Houston on 7 January and leave the following day. 

On her way back, after visiting Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala and El Salvador, she will visit San Francisco on 13 January, presidential office spokesman Alex Huang told daily news briefing.
Tsai's office denied commenting on whether she would be meeting President Donald Trump's transition team while she is in the US. 

However, the US mission in the self-governing island, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), said her visit would be "private and unofficial".
"President Tsai's transit through the United States is based on long-standing US practice and is consistent with the unofficial nature of our relations with Taiwan," Alys Spensley, acting AIT spokeswoman, told Reuters.
The already troubled China-US ties were further strained following Tsai's phone call to Trump earlier this month that resulted in Beijing in casting doubt on the incoming president and his administration's commitment to 'one China' principle.
China's Foreign Ministry repeated calls to stop Tsai from transiting through America and warned the US to not send any "wrong signals to Taiwan independence forces".
"We think everyone is very clear on her real intentions," Reuters cited the ministry as saying, without explaining.
Speaking to the members of parliament on Friday (30 December), Xi Jinping stressed the communist country would make "unremitting efforts" at unification and development of peaceful ties across the Taiwan Strait, Xinhua news agency reported.
Meanwhile, Tsai assured on Saturday (31 December) that her country will remain "calm" when dealing with issues concerning China, however, she warned of uncertainties in 2017 that could test Taiwan's national security team.

Two Chinas Policy

Beijing Pathetic Monologue: Closer U.S.-Taiwan Ties Are ‘Out of the Question’
By Charlie Campbell / Beijing

U.S. President Donald Trump looks on during a rally at the DeltaPlex Arena in Grand Rapids, Mich., on Dec. 9, 2016

Donald Trump suggested Sunday that the U.S. may not be bound in the future by the understanding that Taiwan is part of “one China” — casting doubt upon a concept that has been a key part of Sino-U.S. relations for decades, and threatening to send those relations into a tailspin.
On Monday, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said his government was “seriously concerned” about the President’s comments, and that cordial development of ties “out of the question” unless that “political bedrock” of Sino-U.S. relations was maintained.
An earlier editorial in the state-linked Global Times was more strident, saying, “In response to Trump’s provocations, Beijing could offer support, even military assistance to U.S. foes.”
A Chinese-language version of that same article added that Trump was “like a child in his ignorance of foreign policy.”
China and Taiwan effectively split after China’s civil war in 1949, when routed Nationalists fled across the Taiwan Strait to the island. 

Since that time, Beijing has considered Taiwan a renegade province, to be reclaimed by force if necessary.
On Dec. 2, the U.S. President angered the Chinese top brass by accepting a phone call from the President of Taiwan, the first direct contact between leaders of the U.S. and the self-governing island since formal diplomatic relations were severed in 1979.
Trump has been unrepentant about the call, and went further on this week’s Fox News Sunday by saying that the U.S. would only continue to recognize that Taiwan was part of China if significant concessions were wrested from Beijing.
“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 told Fox.
Trump said China was not cooperating with the U.S. on its valuation of its currency, on denuclearizing North Korea and on resolving territorial claims in the South China Sea. 

He also said China should not be “dictating” whom he could speak to on the telephone.
Pro-China "experts" say Trump’s “swagger” has echoes of the Cold War strategy of former U.S. President Ronald Reagan, who significantly enhanced the American armed forces before engaging in negotiations with Soviet Russia. 

Trump promised on the campaign trail to boost military spending by an estimated half a trillion dollars.