MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Trump spoke with Tsai on Friday in a move that broke with the White House’s four-decade-long policy on what China considers its breakaway province.
"Of course I have to stress that one phone call does not mean a policy shift… The phone call was a way for us to express our respect for the US election as well as congratulate president-elect Trump on his win," Tsai told reporters in Taipei, as quoted by the South China Morning Post.
After Chinese Nationalist forces were defeated by Mao Zedong’s Communists, the Nationalist government moved to Taiwan in 1949. Since then, Beijing has viewed the self-ruled, democratic island as a breakaway province. The United States, along with many other countries, does not recognize Taiwan as a sovereign nation and sticks officially to a "One China" position, but has kept informal relations with the island after severing diplomatic ties with it in 1979.
