US President Barack Obama has warned Donald Trump that any tinkering with the decades-old One-China policy could invite a “very significant” reaction from Beijing, days after the President-elect questioned the policy’s relevance. “The idea of One China is at the heart of their conception as a nation and so if you are going to upend this understanding, you have to have thought through what the consequences because the Chinese will not treat that the way they will treat some other issues.
“They will not even treat it the way they issues around the South China Sea, where we have had a lot of tensions. This goes to the core of how they see themselves,” Obama told reporters at a White House news conference yesterday.
“Their reaction on this issue could end up being very significant. That does not mean that you have to adhere to everything that has been done in the past,” Obama said.