Trump economic adviser defends Taiwan phone call: 'If China doesn't like it, screw 'em'

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last updated 6 December 2016

Stephen Moore, economic adviser to President-elect Donald Trump, couldn't care less about what China thinks. In an interview on the Chicago-based Big John and Ray radio show, Moore applauded Trump's controversial phone call with Taiwan on Friday — even if it does rock the boat on U.S. relations with China. "I love the fact that Trump did that," Moore said. "Too many mamby-pamby people in the foreign policy shop are saying, 'Oh my gosh we can't do this, we might insult the Chinese.' I don't care if we insult the Chinese!"

When Trump spoke with Taiwan's president, he broke with the decades-long U.S. policy against officially recognizing Taiwan's government as an entity separate from China's governing body. Beijing considers Taiwan to be a province of the mainland. On Monday, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest credited the One-China policy with "preserving peace and stability in the Strait" and argued the policy benefits both the U.S. and Taiwan — especially as China is projected to overtake the U.S. as the world's largest economy by 2018.