He spoke with the leader of Taiwan, something no American President has done since before Ronald Reagan.  Taiwan is considered by China to be a breakaway province, not a sovereign state, and a conversation between our President-Elect and their leader will be seen by China as tantamount to recognizing Taiwan, a major provocation.
This comes barely a day after he gushed all over the head of Pakistan, alienating India.  So in barely two days he's pissed off the two largest countries in the world.
So the question is, is there method to his madness or is he just a bull in a "China" shop (excuse the pun)?
I think there's more to it and sense the "unseen hand" of Bannon, looking to tweak the Chinese and get them off balance, but to what end? Whatever the purpose, it's rash and inappropriate for Trump to be hijacking our foreign policy before he's even in office.
This guy gets scarier every day.

So the US selling Taiwan arms did not upset China as much as this call per the NY Times. E

-- Modified on 12/2/2016 12:29:03 PM

So lets calm down a bit.  

he does. So, lollipops for both.

Trump tweeted:  "The President of Taiwan CALLED ME."  However, the Taiwanese press reported that the call was arranged by Trump's people.

Please link your post of you ripping Obama for that, then I will listen all day to your ripping Trump for merely talking on the phone.

China being our wife, Taiwan being our mistress. We play with the mistress, take her out, buy her a few things and we try to keep this a secret from our wife, China. The wife kinda knows but monitors the relationship in secret. The wife doesn't want you calling the mistress from the home phone, you don't admit to fucking your mistress, but you are...you try to keep the relationship on the down low.
Now if you fall in love with the mistress....The shit will hit the fan.

Comparing what Trump just did to Obama opening to Cuba is so bogus it defies belief.  But since you are factually challenged, here are the differences:
1) Cuba is a flyspeck of a country, of no real importance to us.  China is only the largest country in the world and holds YUGE amounts of our debt.  It's also a major trading partner.  Beyond that we rely on China to have some moderating influence on North Korea. In fact, they just supported increased sanctions on Kim. There isn't a more important country to us than China.  There isn't a less important country to us than Cuba.
2) The Cuba "policy" was clearly not working.  It did nothing to get the Castros out and the only reason it wasn't changed years ago was as a sop to the large Cuban-American community in Florida, a major voting block.  Our policy toward China wasn't working perfectly but was generally acceptable.  We even sold arms to Taiwan and have kept China from invading.  Certainly, there are challenges with that country but the relationship is manageable.  
3) Before you give Trump a premature pass on this, let's wait and see what the Chinese do in the coming days.  It may not have been worth  a thoughtless phone call.
4) Perhaps, unlike the idiotic phone call with the Pakis yesterday, there's method to Trump's madness.  But it will have to be a doozy of a winner to balance out against an insulting and provocative gesture against an important country with which we have a very complex relationship.

That was the most simplistic analogy since Vern's last post.  Or any of his other posts.  Congratulations, I'm lobbying for an Honorary SPOTY for you.

...when Devious Donny went against 40 years of precedent against Cuba and tried to do business with them?  Please link your post of you ripping Trump for that.

So it's business as usual. And if China get pissed, fuck it, we'll just give them a Billion Dollar tax break..it's all good, life is good.

You could have waited a few days to see the Chinese response but you acted like an unhinged lib keyboard warrior and rushed to make your frothing "Trump Derangement Syndrome" point about a simple phone call.

But you rip Trump. lol

My post was hardly "unhinged," especially compared to some of your heated vaporings here.  I posted the article now because, DUH, it was just reported Trump made the phone call.  Tell me something, Jack-O, do you usually wait two days before posting about something?  Pot=Kettle=Black much?  No one on this board -- or anywhere else -- waits a few days before commenting on things.  So your entire point is a huge red herring. And when the Chinks respond I'll post about that, too, whenever I choose. You should do the same and not whine.
Now Cuba.  You think it was a "cave in," I don't.  I think it was a wise acknowledgement that the old policy was bankrupt and had ceased to be relevant decades ago.  Also that creating real change in Cuba is much more likely if we open it to our ideas and commerce than if we kept blindly pursuing a policy that had already failed.
Re arms sales to Taiwan, are you seriously suggesting it was a bad idea to sell them the arms?  We'd been doing that for decades as a way to make the cost to China of invading them too high.  The mainland Chinks yelled about it but did nothing.  That's part of the relationship. Trump's foolishness, however, broke new and dangerous ground that neither Reagan nor both Bush Presidents did. The consequences are very unpredictable.

another example of how utterly clueless this fuckhead is..

...that the poster is "unhinged" and "frothing" or "outraged."  You should consider adding a course in that to the other bullshit curriculum at JDU.

It's hysterical you are still arguing this point. We GAVE but received NOTHING. From a "flyspeck" no less! ROTF!!!

What else explains your vaporings?  Re Cuba, you don't DO a deal like that for a simple quid pro quo.  If you don't understand that than you have no clue about how diplomacy works. That deal was basically too small to care about.  Inconsequential and nothing to get riled up about unless you're a Cuban refugee who therefore lacks any perspective about it.
You are also clueless about Taiwan and China.  China did nothing about the Taiwan arms deal because the rest of the relationship was too valuable.  It's too soon to know if that will hold after Trump's stupidity but what was the benefit to us?  If you expected Cuba to give us something back for renewing relations with them then what will Trump get from Taiwan for his phone call?  The answer is simple. Nothing.  What he'll get from mainland China is less predictable.  This entire episode was a shoot-from-the-hip exercise with no clue as to where it would lead, no apparent benefit from Taiwan (which has nothing to give us anyway but flat screen TVs) and a large potential harm from damaging already complex relations with China.
So, yes, I DO think it's possible "a brief phone call by a dude with orange hair" can cause unpredictable damage.  We'll have to see.  But until we hear if there was some actual thought about the costs vs. benefits of this move, I'll assume it was just like the rest of the way Trump operates: he doesn't give a shit about facts, doesn't want briefings, and flies by the seat of his oversized pants.  That's fine when he's running his own company but not when he's running my country.
And when you combine it with his idiotic phone call with the Pakis, the rest of the world is scratching its head and wondering if the incoming President has a clue and whether anything he says can be taken seriously.

Taiwan president is different. She has a pussy, & grab zone.

Next will be British PM & Danish pastry.

There is no method behind this faux pas, just the usual ongoing ignorance. But, hey! Totally unspoiled! Right?

So was that just your faux pas or your usual ongoing ignorance?

I wrote in Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, with Jack Dunphy as VP.  They should be coming for you soon.  You're in favor of waterboarding, aren't you? ROFL.

And those fkkers stink from being in the desert with no A/C. lol

Being Liar-In-Chief, with the whole world knowing full well that nothing he say's can be taken as the truth, one country leader after another, will be claiming he said something, that he may or may not have said, and they will justify their actions accordingly. I see a major re-alignment of alliances occurring in the next couple of years.

-- Modified on 12/3/2016 10:28:43 AM

I think it was deliberate, pre planned, and done for effect.

Just don't expect me to agree with you on your tired "apology tour" crack.  I was around when that went down and all he said was the US wasn't always right  Duh.  Now there's a statement of the obvious....
Viet Nam
The Greek Colonels
Gen. Pinochet
Mohammad Mossadegh
etc., etc.
It's not unpatriotic to point out we do make mistakes.
And of course there are many more things on the positive side of the ledger, too.  But not being able to admit your mistakes is a sign of weakness.

Obama set the tone from day one that in his view, There was no such thing as American exceptionalism, America had perhaps gotten to be the most powerful country in the world unfairly, and that he was a globalist who could and would put the needs of the world over that of his own country. and that was EXACTLY how he governed, and THAT was what gave rise to the likes of Donald Trump.

That's just dumb.  Please find me ONE article or statement by ANYONE overseas who said that. The whole "apology tour" thing was propaganda cooked up by the American right.  Oh, and Obama never said the was "no such thing as American exceptionalism."  Please find me ONE quote of his saying that.
Jesus, GaGa, when you drink the Kool-Aid you really chug it