<p>Donald Trump seems to have a habit of starting negotiations with extreme positions &ndash; building a wall with Mexico, threatening car manufacturers with a 35% tax, etc. &ndash; and now he&rsquo;s doing the same thing with China.</p>
<p>Trump was not kind to the communist nation during his campaign, proposing a 45% tariff as punishment for currency manipulation and insulting the &ldquo;one-China&rdquo; policy by threatening to recognize the self-governing island of Taiwan.</p>
<p>Incoming Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had adopted a similar stance towards China, and the Asian nation&#8217;s response to his latest insult seems to have the liberal media convinced we&rsquo;re headed to war. ;</p>
<p>Tillerson has proposed blocking China from the artificial islands (military facilities) it has been constructing in the South China Sea &ndash; a contested area claimed by Vietnam, China, the Philippines, and others.</p>
<p>If the US acts on this threat, &ldquo;it would set a course for devastating confrontation between China and the US,&rdquo; replied the state-owned <em>China Daily. ;</em></p>
<p>The Obama Administration has already condemned China&rsquo;s actions in the strategically valuable South China Sea, considering its behavior a threat to freedom of navigation and flight through ;the region.</p>
<p>Tillerson compared China&rsquo;s actions in the South China Sea to Putin&rsquo;s invasion of Crimea and stated that the territory is &ldquo;not rightfully China&rsquo;s.&rdquo;</p>
<p>&ldquo;Unless Washington plans to wage a large scale war in the South China Sea, any other approaches to prevent Chinese access to the islands will be foolish,&rdquo; warned the <em>Global Times. ;</em>Tillerson had better &ldquo;bone up on nuclear power strategies if he wants to force a big nuclear power to withdraw from its own territories,&rdquo; continued the nationalistic newspaper. ;</p>
<p><strong>There&#8217;s still the issue of Taiwan.</strong></p>
<p>According to the &ldquo;one-China&rdquo; policy, Taiwan is no more than a rebellious province that needs to be reunified with the mainland. Washington has officially agreed with this stance since 1979.</p>
<p>&ldquo;The one-China principle is the political foundation of Sino-US relations and it is non-negotiable. We urge the relevant side in the US to recognize the high sensitivity of the Taiwan issue and abide by the pledges by successive US administrations from both parties,&rdquo; said China Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang.</p>
<p>But Trump has threatened to use Taiwan as a bargaining chip, and his unorthodox phone call with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen in December has China rattled. ;</p>
<p>The &ldquo;government of the People&rsquo;s Republic of China is the only legitimate government representing China,&rdquo; reiterated Kang. &ldquo;That is the fact acknowledged by the international community and no one can change.&rdquo; ;</p>
<p>The fact remains that China needs us more than we need them, and Trump and Tillerson&rsquo;s fighting words are more bark than bite. China seems to realize this strategy, and it is unlikely that conflict will result.</p>
<p>&ldquo;It remains to be seen to what extent his [Tillerson&rsquo;s] views against China will translate into US foreign policies,&rdquo; reported the <em>China Daily. ;</em></p>