US President-elect Donald Trump has been asked by one of his advisers not to worry about insulting China and ‘screw them’ if Beijing objects to him speaking to Taiwan.
According to a report in ‘The Daily Telegraph’, Stephen Moore, an economic adviser to Trump, has said that the President-elect was right to risk China's displeasure by speaking on the phone with the President of Taiwan, which the Chinese regard as a breakaway province.
"Too many namby-pamby people in the foreign policy shop are saying 'Oh my gosh we can't do this, we might insult the Chinese.' I don't care if we insult the Chinese,” Stephen Moore said.
"Taiwan is our ally. That is a country that we have backed because they believe in freedom. We ought to back our ally, and if China doesn't like it, screw 'em," he added.
He also advised Donald Trump to follow former President Ronald Reagan in tackling bullies like China.
"We see what's happening in China the way they're sabre rattling out there in the East, it's about time we do what Reagan did, we stand up to these bullies," Moore said.
Stephen Moore’s comments came after Donald Trump stoked a controversy by becoming the first US President or President-elect since 1979 to speak on phone with a leader of Taiwan.
Trump talked to Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen despite the fact that the US does not recognise Taiwan as a sovereign nation.
Trump also stirred a diplomatic row by accusing Beijing of currency manipulation and flexing its muscles in the South China Sea.
Even the White House was compelled to say that Trump’s Taiwan phone call could "undermine" US relations with China.
