CNN’s Zakaria: Trump Making Overtures to Taiwan ‘Not a Bad Idea,’ But It Has To Be Done In a Better Way

On Monday’s broadcast of CNN’s “New Day,” “GPS” host Fareed Zakaria argued that President-Elect Donald Trump’s phone call with Taiwan’s President could be a sign that Trump wants leverage with China, which the US needs, and that making overtures to Taiwan isn’t a bad idea, it just needs to be more planned and strategic.

Zakaria said, “I think it could signal that Trump is searching for leverage with China, which is not a bad thing. I think the key here is that it should be part of a thought-through strategy, where they have figured out here are the things we want from China, here are the points of leverage we’re going to use. In that context, making some overtures to Taiwan is not a bad idea. It’s just what — the way in which it was done, and the fact that, for example, no allies of ours seem to have been informed of it, whether it’s the Japanese or the South Koreans, the kind of Twitter-based diplomacy, if you will, that’s the part that I think is, not just throwing some of us in the United States off, but many people around the world. You know, people look to American foreign policy as a kind of bedrock of international order. So they want to see it strategic, carefully planned, but the — the substance of it, I think people are getting overly critical. The truth of the matter is, we need leverage with China. China is a country that cooperates with the United States on many issues, but on many issues, we need to be able to push them harder.”

(h/t Mediaite)

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett