The Silliness of Not Talking to Taiwan

Recently, President-elect, Donald Trump, took a phone call from the President of Taiwan, and the Democrats and liberal media (and China) went berserk over it.  Even going so far as to call Trump stupid for violating a long held official non-diplomatic status.  A status which is, in itself, a charade; we know it, and so does China, which claims that Taiwan is their property and subject to their government's regulation.  However, in 1979, the then-President Jimmy Carter signed the Taiwan Relations Act into law, in order to establish an unofficial diplomatic status with them and conduct relations through a "front" organization called the American Institute of Taiwan; located in Washington, D.C.

Therefore, we do not have an official relation with Taiwan, but we sure seem to do a lot of business with that country.  "Officially", Taiwan is our 9th largest trading partner.  We sell them about $26 billion in goods, and,they, in turn, send us about $41 billion in Taiwan-made products.  Additionally, many of our major multinational companies have operations there.  Companies such as IBM, 3M, and Microsoft.  On top of everything else, the United States has sold Taiwan billions of dollars worth of military equipment under every President since 1979, in order to help them defend themselves against China.  You don't think that hasn't pissed China off more than a few minutes of conversation between Donald Trump and Taiwan's President?

So, just maybe, Donald Trump will finally expose the folly of not dealing with Taiwan directly.  I hope so, because this nonsense of not talking to them is really, really silly.  By the way.  I wish the Washington Post would take a single stand on this (note the references below).  Even going so far as to say it was "brilliant"!  Wow! That's saying a lot from a noted liberal media outlet.

References:

Washington Post: Trump speaks with Taiwanese president, a major break with decades of U.S. policy on China: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-spoke-with-taiwanese-president-a-major-break-with-decades-of-us-policy-on-china/2016/12/02/b98d3a22-b8ca-11e6-959c-172c82123976_story.html?utm_term=.d34c21b5f16e

Washington Post: Why people are making such a big deal about the Trump-Taiwan call: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/12/05/why-people-are-making-such-a-big-deal-about-the-trump-taiwan-call/?utm_term=.8bbef408152e

Washington Post: Trump's Taiwan call wasn't a blunder. It was brilliant: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trumps-taiwan-call-wasnt-a-blunder-it-was-brilliant/2016/12/05/d10169a2-bb00-11e6-ac85-094a21c44abc_story.html?utm_term=.fc59b878d738

Washington Post: Trump’s Taiwan phone call was long planned, say people who were involved: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trumps-taiwan-phone-call-was-weeks-in-the-planning-say-people-who-were-involved/2016/12/04/f8be4b0c-ba4e-11e6-94ac-3d324840106c_story.html?utm_term=.f12d06aa85c9

Taiwan–United States relations: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiwan%E2%80%93United_States_relations

U.S. Trade with Taiwan: https://www.google.com/search?q=u.s.+exports+to+taiwan&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

U.S. Companies in Taiwan: http://www.ustaiwanconnect.org/US-Taiwan-Relations/Investment/U-S-Companies-in-Taiwan

List of US arms sales to Taiwan - Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_US_arms_sales_to_Taiwan