“That fact is very positive.”

“That fact is very positive.”
When Mr. Trump took a precedent-shattering phone call from President Tsai Ing-wen of Taiwan in early December, and said a few days later
that he wanted to extract concessions from Beijing in return for keeping the One China policy, the Chinese government issued “ugly” statements saying it would not waver on the issue of Taiwan, Mr. Shi said.
Even though many other world leaders had spoken to the new American president by phone since his inauguration on Jan. 20, Mr. Xi had refused to talk to Mr. Trump until he was sure
that the American president would give what turned out to be a concession — an affirmation of the One China policy, Mr. Shi said.
“The cost to the U. S. of refusing to recommit to the One China policy was very high,
and Trump was persuaded,” said Bonnie S. Glaser, director of the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
Trump, Changing Course on Taiwan, Gives China an Upper Hand -
BEIJING — By backing down in a telephone call with China’s president on his promise to review the status
of Taiwan, President Trump may have averted a confrontation with America’s most powerful rival.
American leadership was damaged by Mr. Trump staking out a position and then stepping back, said Hugh White, a professor of strategic studies at the Australian National University and the author of “The China Choice,” a book
that argues that the United States should share power in the Pacific region with China.
“Even though Trump has said he will support the ‘One China’ policy, China cannot fully trust him,” said
Yan Xuetong, dean of the school of international relations at Tsinghua University, in Beijing.