Bay Area experts analyze Trump's Taiwan call

Katie Marzullo Image
ByKatie Marzullo KGO logo
Saturday, December 3, 2016
Bay Area experts analyze Trump's Taiwan call
President-elect Trump has broken another barrier and has spoken to the president of Taiwan for the first time since 1979.

SAN JOSE, Calif. (KGO) -- President-elect Donald Trump has done something that hasn't been done in 40 years--he spoke with the president of Taiwan. Now all eyes are on China, waiting for what's expected to be a negative reaction.

Robert Wood is a professor of strategic management and global business at San Jose State University. "China, I promise, will be really, really mad," he said.

Wood says by talking to the president of Taiwan president-Elect Trump is sending a message to China. "What he's clearly showing is that we're going to have a different relationship between the United States and China, from what we've had through Republicans and Democrats since 1979," he said.

The year the United States broke diplomatic ties with Taiwan was 1979. Political science professor Greg Corning at Santa Clara University agrees. This is President-elect Trump setting himself apart. "China is the second largest economy in the world," he said. "It's our main competitor. Making China happy is perhaps not his main concern."

The President-elect took to Twitter to clarify the call:

East Bay U.S. Rep. John Garamendi is not concerned with who called who. "Nov. 19 the Trump organization was in Taiwan trying to close a real estate deal," he said. "So we have this issue of international diplomacy going on, but you also have this issue. Are there conflicts here?"

Despite a lack of diplomacy, the United States has maintained an economic and security relationship with Taiwan, something Donald Trump acknowledged in a second tweet: