“Taiwan is not a source of leverage, it’s a close partner of the United States,” said White House spokesman Josh Earnest, in an unusually direct criticism of Trump’s remarks.
Earnest’s comments come after the president-elect suggested he could jettison Washington’s decades-old “One China policy” — a diplomatic dodge, allowing Washington to simultaneously do business with Beijing and Taipei.
Trump said he did not see why Washington must “be bound by a One China policy unless we make a deal with China having to do with other things, including trade.”
Trump earlier shocked the diplomatic establishment and angered Beijing by speaking directly with Taiwan’s leader Tsai Ing-wen after his election victory.