WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: What The Taiwan Call Means.

The ten minute telephone call from Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen to Donald Trump will not, by itself, cause a crisis in US-China relations, but it tells us a lot about the President-elect’s approach to foreign policy. First, it seems pretty clear that this was not a case of Trump going off script or of an over-zealous aid pushing a pet idea in the chaos of a transition. The Trump people know that China matters, that Taiwan is a sensitive issue, and that managing U.S.-China relations will be one of their most important and most difficult challenges. Trump and his key advisors knew very well that the world, and Beijing, would pay close attention to any contacts with Taiwan. Trump took the call knowing that Beijing and the rest of the world would be paying attention.
It’s much too early to tell whether Trump’s China policy, much less his foreign policy in general, will be a success; our task now is less to render judgment on his approach than to understand what it will be, and the Taiwan call offers some valuable insights into what is certain to be a disruptive and eventful Presidency. So what does the call tell us?

First, it’s a definite sign that Trump is much less constrained by the past and by the perceived taboos of the foreign policy establishment than any of his predecessors in the last two generations. . . .

Second, the Taiwan call tells us that Trump isn’t waiting for January 20th to get Obama’s hands off the foreign policy steering wheel. Obama has been trying to tie his successor’s hands on issues like the Iran deal; Trump is underlining that Obama is a lame duck, that he can’t commit the United States, and that the next administration is going to take a different line. This may or may not be wise, but Trump has so far been extremely successful in isolating and undermining Obama. The Taiwan call was one of many signals that Trump intends to manage American foreign policy very differently from his predecessor; all over the world, leaders are moving away from the postures they adopted in response to Obama’s goals and priorities in order to reposition themselves for the next era.

Third, when it coms to Asia policy, the Taiwan call is a clear sign that Trump is planning to do two things at the same time: to dump the Obama era “pivot to Asia” and simultaneously to assert the American presence in and commitment to Asia in unmistakable ways.

Given Obama’s disastrous foreign policy record, taking his hands off the steering wheel seems like a good idea.