Sat Jan 14, 2017 | 10H:41 GMT/UTC/ZULU TIME
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal he would keep intact sanctions against Russia "at least for a period of time," and also said he wouldn't commit to the "one China" policy until he sees progress from Beijing in its currency and trade practices.
In excerpts from an hourlong interview published by the Journal on Friday, Trump said: "If you get along and if Russia is really helping us, why would anybody have sanctions if somebody’s doing some really great things?"
Trump suggested he might do away with the sanctions - imposed by the Obama administration in late December in response to Moscow’s alleged cyber attacks - if Moscow proves helpful in battling terrorists and reaching other goals important to Washington, the Journal reported.
Trump told the newspaper he is prepared to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin some time after he is sworn in on Jan. 20.
"I understand that they would like to meet, and that’s absolutely fine with me," he said.
Asked if he supported the "one China" policy on Taiwan that has underpinned U.S. relations with Beijing for decades, Trump told the Journal: "Everything is under negotiation including One China."
Trump angered the Chinese by taking a congratulatory phone call after his election win from Taiwan's leader and questioning the "one China" policy.
The United States has acknowledged the Chinese position that there is only one China and that Taiwan is part of China.
Trump has said in the past he would label China a currency manipulator after he takes office. In the interview, he said he wouldn’t take that step on his first day in the White House. “I would talk to them first," he said.
"Certainly they are manipulators," he added. "But I’m not looking to do that."
But he made plain his displeasure with China’s currency practices. "Instead of saying, 'We’re devaluating our currency,' they say, 'Oh, our currency is dropping.' It’s not dropping. They’re doing it on purpose," he said, according to the Journal.
"Our companies can’t compete with them now because our currency is strong and it’s killing us," the Journal quoted Trump as saying.
Calls to the Chinese foreign ministry spokesman’s office were not answered, and the ministry did not respond immediately to an emailed request for comment on the Wall Street Journal interview.
Meanwhile, Chinese state-controlled newspaper the Global Times warned incoming President Donald Trump he would be "foolish" to stop China from accessing the islands.
The paper wrote on its website: "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.”
It added that the US "has no absolute power to dominate the South China Sea”.
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The warning comes after Secretary of State nominee Rex Tillerson said such access should be restricted.
But the Global Times comment added that Mr Tillerson "had better bone up on nuclear power strategies if he wants to force a big nuclear power to withdraw from its own territories".
The statement also added: "If Trump's diplomatic team shapes future Sino-US ties as it is doing now, the two sides had better prepare for a military clash.”
The 64-year-old former ExxonMobil chief made his remarks during his Senate confirmation hearing last Wednesday where he said that China’s activities in the disputed waters of the South China Sea were “extremely worrisome”.
He said: "Building islands and then putting military assets on those islands is akin to Russia's taking of Crimea."
Referring to the reunification of Crimea and Russia, which took place following a referendum in 2014, he said: “It's taking of territory that others lay claim to."
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Mr Tillerson added: "We're going to have to send China a clear signal that first, the island-building stops, and second, your access to those islands also not going to be allowed."
China has laid claim to much of the South China Sea which is also claimed, in part, by Vietnam, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei.
In a move that has been widely condemned, China has built various artificial islands in the sea which have been used for military purposes.
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The latest war of words is part of larger diplomatic tensions between the two countries over the area.
In October, a US warship sailed near islands claimed by Beijing, drawing a warning from Chinese warships to leave the area. The Chinese Defence Ministry later called the move "illegal" and "provocative".
Last year, judges at the arbitration tribunal in The Hague ruled in favor of Manila, stating that China has caused irreparable harm to the ecosystem of the South China Sea's Spratly Islands and breached the Philippines' sovereign rights.
China quickly declared The Hague’s decision “null and void” and soon started building an artificial island on Scarborough Shoal, just northeast of the Spratlys.
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