Submitted by Daniel Cloud
“Donald Trump is either too incompetent to understand that his foolish phone call threatens our national security, or he’s doing it deliberately because he reportedly wants to build hotels in Taiwan to pad his own pockets.”
- (Democratic National Committee Spokesperson)
With last Friday's phone call between Donald Trump and Taiwan's president Tsai Ing-wen which broke decades of US protocol, still creating ripples among diplomatic circles and the political punditry, not to mention continue to fascinate the media which leads today with such speculative headlines as Wooed by Trump, Taiwan Trembles, China urges U.S. to block transit by Taiwan president, U.S.
Following yesterday's unexpected phone call between Taiwan president Tsai Ing-wen and President-elect Trump, which broke with decades of foreign policy norms resulting from Washington's official "One China" stance....
NEW PHOTO: Taiwan releases photo of President Tsai Ing-wen, center, speaking with Trump during controversial call https://t.co/Gt2CAiKH7K pic.twitter.com/RoLIjWlYML
— ABC News (@ABC) December 3, 2016
A strong magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck southern Taiwan early on Saturday, according to the US Geological Survey . The quake struck at 11:57 a.m. PT about 14 miles northeast of the city of Pingtung, 19 miles (31 km) east-southeast of Tainan at a depth of 6.2 miles, the agency said. The USGS have also warned that a magnitude 6.4 quake is capable of causing a “severe damage”, though there have been no reports casualties but one official said that a building had partially collapsed No tsunami warnings have yet been issued.
John Bolton has some typically bad recommendations for U.S. China policy: