US President Donald Trump said he would talk to his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping first, when asked if he would speak again to Taiwanese leader Tsai Ing-wen. “My problem is that I have established a very good personal relationship with President Xi,” Trump was quoted by Reuters as saying in an interview in the White House. “I really feel that he is doing everything in his power to help us with a big situation. So I wouldn’t want to be causing difficulty right now for him.” “So I would certainly want to speak to him first.” Trump’s tax cut plan poses a new threat to China Tsai, president of the self-ruled Taiwan, had said in a separate interview in Taipei on Thursday that a direct phone call between Trump and her could happen again . “We have the opportunity to communicate more directly with the US government,” Tsai said. “We don’t exclude the opportunity to call President Trump himself, but it depends on the needs of the situation and the US government’s consideration of regional affairs.” Last December, Trump took a congratulatory phone call from Tsai after he won the US presidential election. The move angered Beijing as it was the first contact between a Taiwanese leader of Taiwan and a US president-elect in nearly four decades. Trump-Xi ties put to test as Taiwan bids to buy America’s F-35 fighter jets In an interview in January, Trump said he would not honour the US commitment not to recognise Taiwan diplomatically, unless he saw what he considered progress from Beijing in its currency and trade practices. “Everything is under negotiation, including ‘one China’,” Trump was quoted as saying. But the US leader changed his stance in February, agreeing to honour the “one China” policy after all, and in April hosted Xi at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida. Additional reporting by Reuters
