President Obama urges Trump to ‘think it through’ on China

World Today

President Obama urges Trump to 'think it through' on China

U.S. President-Elect Donald Trump’s comments that he would not necessarily be bound by the One-China Policy-have drawn criticism from around the world.

The current U.S. President Obama is also sending a warning to his successor. CCTV America’s Jim Spellman reports.

“The idea of one-China is at the heart of their conception as a nation and so if you are going to upend this understanding, you have to have thought through what the consequences are because the Chinese will not treat that the way they will treat some other issues,” President Obama said.

China’s Foreign Ministry reacted forcefully to Trump’s comments.

“We urge the new U.S. administration and its leader to fully understand the highly sensitive Taiwan issue, continue to adhere to the one-China policy and principles of the three joint communiques guiding Sino-U.S. relations, and handle the Taiwan issue cautiously and properly so that the bigger picture of China-U.S. relations would not suffer from any major disruption and damage,” Geng Shuang, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman said.

President Obama said China and the U.S. can disagree over issues in a constructive way, but respecting the one-China policy is vital to the future of U.S. relations with China.