US not necessarily bound by 'one China' policy, Trump says

US President-elect Donald Trump said the United States did not necessarily have to stick to its long-standing position that Taiwan is part of "one China".

Trump's comments on "Fox News Sunday" came after he prompted a diplomatic protest from China over his decision to accept a telephone call from Taiwan's president on 2 December.

"I fully understand the 'one China' policy, but I don't know why we have to be bound by a 'one China' policy unless we make a deal with China having to do with other things, including trade," Trump told Fox.

Washington’s acceptance of the “One China” principle has been a crucial part of the fabric of US-China relations since ties between the two countries were re-established by Richard Nixon and Mao Zedong in 1972.

Trump’s comments came less than a fortnight after the property tycoon looked to have initiated a potentially damaging diplomatic row with Beijing by holding a telephone conversation with Taiwan’s president Tsai Ing-wen and subsequently attacking China on Twitter for its alleged currency manipulation and construction of “a massive military complex” in the South China Sea.

Trump's call with President Tsai Ing-wen was the first such contact with Taiwan by a US President-elect or President since President Jimmy Carter switched diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China in 1979, acknowledging Taiwan as part of "one China."

Beijing considers Taiwan a renegade province and the subject is a sensitive one for China.

After Trump's phone conversation with Taiwan's President, the Obama administration said senior White House aides had spoken with Chinese officials to insist that Washington’s “one China” policy remained intact. The administration also warned that progress made in the US relationship with China could be undermined by a "flaring up" of the Taiwan issue.