Gingrich: China won’t intimate the U.S. anymore

“Under Trump, China won’t intimidate the U.S, ” said Newt Gingrich, a close advisor to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and former House Speaker, targeting China that criticized Trump’s call with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen.

“I think this whole state department mythology that we have to somehow let the Chinese dictate to us is nonsense and I thought it was a good signal to the world that Donald Trump is going to be his own person,” Gingrich said on Fox & Friends on Monday. “If the Chinese want to deal with the United States, they are going to have to actually deal with the United States. They are not going to be able to intimidate us.”

Trump called the Taiwanese president for the first time in 37 years as a president-elect and touched one of the most vulnerable spots to China, which has stuck to the “One China” policy. The Chinese foreign ministry made an official protest and the state-owned media The Global Times said at an editorial on Tuesday, “Trump wants to treat China as a fat lamb... Forget about it!” It was a warning that the U.S. should not try to gain the upper hand in negotiating economic issues leveraging Taiwan.

The White House also expressed concerns about Trump. White House spokesman Josh Earnest said in a briefing on Monday, "our country's continued commitment to a one-China policy... If the president-elect's team has a different aim, I'll leave it to them to describe.”

“Somehow it's okay with the state department to talk to any dictator on the planet, but an elected leader of a democracy, boy, that's really dangerous,” Gingrich said. He added that China needs to understand the U.S. as much as the U.S. does to understand China.

In-Chan Hwang hic@donga.com