# what sort of repercussions for Trump's call with Taiwan?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sort-of-repercussions-for-trumps-call-with-taiwan/774033
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [December 6, 2016, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sort-of-repercussions-for-trumps-call-with-taiwan/774033 "2016-12-06T16:27:49Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2016, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sort-of-repercussions-for-trumps-call-with-taiwan/774033/1 "2016-12-06T16:27:49Z")
Owing to several decades of diplomatic precedent during which the US did not formally acknowledge Taiwan as an independent country, the world seems to be in a tizzy regarding Trump’s recent phone conversation with the president of Taiwan.
I gather Chinese culture has (from an American perspective) a strong aversion to public embarrassment, i.e. a [loss of “face”.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Face_(sociological_concept)#Chinese_.E8.84.B8_.E9.9D.A2_and_.E9.9D.A2_.E5.AD.90) So what are the potential consequences of Trump’s phone call? Is China likely to be less cooperative on diplomatic issues in the future? Are they going to somehow punish Taiwain?
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### Author:  [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2016, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sort-of-repercussions-for-trumps-call-with-taiwan/774033/2 "2016-12-06T16:55:42Z")
Trump basically just started WW3 like he promised he would.
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### Author:  [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2016, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sort-of-repercussions-for-trumps-call-with-taiwan/774033/3 "2016-12-06T16:56:02Z")
Tempest in a teacup, IMO.
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### Author:  [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2016, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sort-of-repercussions-for-trumps-call-with-taiwan/774033/4 "2016-12-06T17:02:58Z")
It depends.
If China thinks Trump’s actions constitute a formal recognition by the US of Taiwan’s independence - and that other countries will, er, recognize the US’s recognition of Taiwan as independent - China are likely to take action to reassert their claim of sovereignty over the island and it’s not likely to be pleasant even if it doesn’t involve military action.
On the other hand, if China thinks that Trump is just talking out of his ass and that his actions aren’t something to be taken seriously AND that no one else is likely to take him seriously either, they’ll settle for some pointed harrumphing. However, this also makes it much less likely they’ll pay any attention to anything he says in future in any context.
So: open hostilities or total irrelevance. Either way, it’s not making America any greater.
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### Author:  [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2016, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sort-of-repercussions-for-trumps-call-with-taiwan/774033/5 "2016-12-06T17:20:24Z")
Donald Trump is currently a private citizen–like you or me. His behavior will not have significant diplomatic consequences until he becomes President.
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### Author:  [@doorhinge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doorhinge)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2016, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sort-of-repercussions-for-trumps-call-with-taiwan/774033/6 "2016-12-06T17:35:29Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#):
>
> what sort of repercussions for Trump’s call with Taiwan?
(post shortened)
China is pissed about something/everything.
President-elect Trump took a congratulatory phone call from the President of Taiwan.
China is pissed about that.
President Obama can/will/may apologize to China for something/nothing/everything.
China will be pissed about something else.
My prediction is that nothing will change between China and the U.S.A. over this particular congratulatory phone call.
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### Author:  [@Evan\_Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evan_Drake)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2016, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sort-of-repercussions-for-trumps-call-with-taiwan/774033/7 "2016-12-06T17:54:03Z")
Terrible, terrible things.
The entire diplomatic corps will resign; China will nuke Russia ( because Putin and Trump get along ); the economy will collapse into chaos; and Donald Trump will be hooted and pelted by the enraged populace as he is hurried from the White House in an orange jumpsuit for 140 years in jail for Grand Treason.
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### Author:  [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2016, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sort-of-repercussions-for-trumps-call-with-taiwan/774033/8 "2016-12-06T18:07:14Z")
**Drunky Smurf** : Enough. You cannot go into thread after thread dropping these kinds of comments. Participate in a meaningful way or stay out of these threads.
You will start being warned for this behavior.
> [@Drunky\_Smurf](#):
>
> Trump basically just started WW3 like he promised he would.
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### Author:  [@ataraxy22](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ataraxy22)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2016, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sort-of-repercussions-for-trumps-call-with-taiwan/774033/9 "2016-12-06T18:07:44Z")
Don’t expect China to go out of its way to help Trump deal with the upcoming North Korea ICBM situation.
Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk
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### Author:  [@Me\_Billy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Me_Billy)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2016, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sort-of-repercussions-for-trumps-call-with-taiwan/774033/10 "2016-12-06T18:24:04Z")
If you attack or tick off ONE Chinese person, you are attacking the entire country (in their eyes) and you will have the whole lot of them ticked off.
With that said, many products are shipped from China to the U.S. A sudden rash of faulty or dangerous products and/or sudden price increases would not surprise me.
The Chinese “glass heart” - a video by westerners living in China…
(“Pack mentality” discussed at 5:30 on video.)
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ez3SaiulaHM)
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### Author:  [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2016, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sort-of-repercussions-for-trumps-call-with-taiwan/774033/11 "2016-12-06T18:55:43Z")
The US has sold billions of dollars in weapons to Taiwan over the years. All without incurring the wrath of Chinese exporters.
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### Author:  [@Evan\_Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evan_Drake)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2016, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sort-of-repercussions-for-trumps-call-with-taiwan/774033/12 "2016-12-06T18:55:47Z")
Wouldn’t the Chinese increasing prices serve Trump well as being the same as the tariff rises against China he promised ?
The man’s a genius.
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### Author:  [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2016, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sort-of-repercussions-for-trumps-call-with-taiwan/774033/13 "2016-12-06T19:10:14Z")
> [@Evan\_Drake](#):
>
> Wouldn’t the Chinese increasing prices serve Trump well as being the same as the tariff rises against China he promised ?
> The man’s a genius.
I think if China wanted to hurt the US, they’d _lower_ prices to put more US manufacturers out of business (i.e. [dumping](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dumping_(pricing_policy))). I’m not sure what Trump could do about that.
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### Author:  [@Me\_Billy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Me_Billy)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2016, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sort-of-repercussions-for-trumps-call-with-taiwan/774033/14 "2016-12-06T19:37:17Z")
> [@Evan\_Drake](#):
>
> Wouldn’t the Chinese increasing prices serve Trump well as being the same as the tariff rises against China he promised ?
> The man’s a genius.
That is what we all are wondering!
Is he a total genius - knows _exactly_ what he is doing?
Anyway stay tuned, we should find out shortly.
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### Author:  [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2016, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sort-of-repercussions-for-trumps-call-with-taiwan/774033/15 "2016-12-06T19:41:07Z")
> [@Me\_Billy](#):
>
> That is what we all are wondering!
>
> Is he a total genius - knows _exactly_ what he is doing?
>
> Anyway stay tuned, we should find out shortly.
Not all of us. Many of us aren’t even holding our breath.
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### Author:  [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2016, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sort-of-repercussions-for-trumps-call-with-taiwan/774033/16 "2016-12-06T20:16:16Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#):
>
> The US has sold billions of dollars in weapons to Taiwan over the years. All without incurring the wrath of Chinese exporters.
I hate to bring up Asian stereotypes, but I think there is some truth in saying that Asian cultures tend to put more emphasis in pretense and saving face. US recognition of Taiwan would be an open defiance of China’s stated position, and therefore far more insulting than any material support US provides to Taiwan.
Anyway I found [this Economist article](http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2016/12/us-china-relations) to be informative. From it:
> [@](#):
>
> …I suspect that Mr Trump and his team are almost certainly setting Taiwan up for a fall. That is because there is no chance that, if forced to choose between peaceful relations with China and friendship with Taiwan, any American president will choose Taiwan. And make no mistake, China would force President Trump to choose. At which point he would drop Taiwan like a hot steamed bun.
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### Author:  [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barkis_is_Willin)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2016, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sort-of-repercussions-for-trumps-call-with-taiwan/774033/17 "2016-12-06T20:42:42Z")
Didn’t pretty much every president before Obama vow to defend Taiwan and eventually nothing ever happened? Why think this is any different?
Trump promised he’d be tough on China. So none of this should be surprising.
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### Author:  [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2016, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sort-of-repercussions-for-trumps-call-with-taiwan/774033/18 "2016-12-06T23:22:48Z")
This begs the question of whether Trump knew the implications of the call, or didn’t. I’m going to assume he didn’t. Also the context of the call also involved a business deal Trump is involved in in Taiwan.
I’m prone to assume China will blame Taiwan and think Taiwan was taking advantage of a naive Trump, and direct their anger at them. Maybe Taiwan was trying to provoke China and create a China/US division. It seems to be working. Now Trump is tweeting against China, and China filed a diplomatic protest against Taiwan.
TL;DR - Taiwan probably treated Trump like a useful idiot to sow divisions between US & China. Whatever anger China has will probably be directed more at Taiwan. However the more Trump plays into Taiwan’s hands and creates divisions and standoffs with China, the more China will direct that anger at the US. That is a guess.
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### Author:  [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2016, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sort-of-repercussions-for-trumps-call-with-taiwan/774033/19 "2016-12-07T01:17:47Z")
Are we talking about the same China that couldn’t figure out how to work a set of stairs to AF-1? the same China that attacked one of our Navy P-3’s?
Trump hasn’t taken office yet and already he’s worked a deal with Carrier for jobs and punked a super power that’s had it coming for a long time.
What are they going to do, sell us less crap?
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### Author:  [@usedtobe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usedtobe)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2016, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sort-of-repercussions-for-trumps-call-with-taiwan/774033/20 "2016-12-07T07:38:50Z")
I take you have never heard of “Economic Warfare”.
You just may want to think about the implications of “Selling us less crap” - go through your favorite retail outlet and check Country of Origin.
The big box stores would have lots of bare shelves until the work can be moved to “Not China” - but then, the price to wholesalers would double - the reason all that crap is made in China is because the “Chinese price” is at least half the cost of producing it in Central America or even Vietnam.
And pilots like to play games, such as popping up next to another plane’s cockpit and waving.
The P-3’s damage was caused by its killing the pilot of the interceptor.
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