Coward Trump Sides with Communist China Against Taiwan

Just like all his GOP-Republican predecessors, Donald Trump betrays allies and sides with enemies when it is convenient. No principle.  

To kiss the ass with the Communists in Beijing with whom he is trying to strike a trade deal, Trump has thrown Taiwan under the bus.

The president of Taiwan has been forced to delay a diplomatic trip abroad after the Trump administration blocked him from briefly landing in the US. 

President Lai Ching-te was set to travel to Paraguay, Guatemala and Belize, all of which recognize Taiwan’s sovereignty. Now it looks like the trip will be scrapped or delayed because China pressured the Trump administration to block Mr. Lai's plane from landing briefly in New York after Beijing threatened that the stopover in New York could derail the tarde deal negotiations.

The Taiwanese president is rethinking his trip. “...considering the recent typhoon disaster recovery efforts in southern Taiwan, the US-Taiwan reciprocal tariff measures and regional developments, the president currently has no plans for overseas visits in the near future,” Karen Kuo, the spokesman for the Taiwanese president said.

Beijing is trying to negotiate a deal on trade with President Donald Trump who is desperate to make a deal and claim success. 

China claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, a claim Taiwan rejects, and regularly denounces any shows of support for Taipei from Washington.  Xi Jinping, the president of China, has not ruled out the use of force in the “reunification of the motherland”.

Mr Lai has yet to visit the US since Trump took office in January, though late last year he stopped over in Hawaii and the American territory of Guam while visiting the Pacific.

The US, like most countries, has no formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan but pretends to be its strongest international backer, bound by law to provide the island with the means to defend itself.

Clearly, the decision to block the New York stopover suggests the Trump administration is trying to avoid undermining trade talks with China. Bonnie Glaser, a China and Taiwan expert at the German Marshall Fund, told the FT that the move suggested that “Trump wants to avoid irritating Beijing while US-China negotiations are ongoing and planning gets under way for a possible summit with Xi Jinping”.

“Trump should be standing up to People’s Republic of China pressure, not caving into it,” she said.

“By signalling that aspects of the US relationship with Taiwan are negotiable, Trump will weaken deterrence and embolden Xi to press for additional concessions regarding Taiwan.”