China will take “revenge” if the Trump administration changes course on Taiwan and abandons the one-China policy, Chinese media reports.
“The U. S. and Taiwan should restrain, or be forced to restrain, themselves,” China’s Global Times, a nationalist publication produced by the Communist Party of China’s People’ Daily, asserted Sunday.
Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen made a transit stop in Houston this weekend before moving on to Latin America. During her stopover, Tsai met with GOP Sen. Ted Cruz and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.
She also spoke on the phone with Arizona Sen. John McCain.
“The People’s Republic of China (PRC) needs to understand that in America we make decisions about meeting with visitors for ourselves,” Cruz said Sunday in a statement. “This is not about the PRC. This is about the U. S. relationship with Taiwan, an ally we are legally bound to defend. The Chinese do not give us veto power over those with whom they meet. We will continue to meet with anyone, including the Taiwanese, as we see fit.”
“We firmly oppose leaders of the Taiwan region, on the so-called basis of a transit visit, having any form of contact with U. S. officials and engaging in activities that interfere with and damage China-U. S. relations,” Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Lu Kang said Monday.
Neither Trump nor any members of his transition team met with the Taiwanese president.
“Beijing does not need to feel grateful to Trump for not meeting Tsai,” the Global Times argued.”Sticking to [the one-China policy] is not a capricious request by China upon US presidents, but an obligation of US presidents to maintain China-US relations and respect the existing order of the Asia-Pacific.”
“If Trump reneges on the one-China policy after taking office, the Chinese people will demand the government to take revenge. There is no room for bargaining,” the paper added.
Trump rattled Beijing last month by accepting a phone call from the Taiwanese president. He then pushed China further by questioning the value of upholding the one-China policy, fueling fears that Tsai stirred up following her election last year.
China remains deeply concerned that the incoming administration will offer support to pro-independence forces in Taiwan.
“Any breach of the one-China principle runs counter to the historical trend. It is poisonous to the future development of the U. S.-China ties, the most important bilateral relations in the world,” Xinhua News Agency commented Monday.
“Playing tricks of developing ties with Beijing while showing affection for Taipei, which is contrary to the U. S. original intention of setting up diplomatic ties with China, could backfire,” the state-run outlet explained.
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McDonald’s has agreed to sell 80% of its business in China and Hong Kong, as part of plans to franchise more of its restaurants worldwide.
China’s state-owned investment group Citic, and US private equity firm Carlyle Group, will take control of the operations in a deal valued at $2.1bn (£1.7bn).
McDonald’s owns and operates about 65% of its 2,000 China outlets.
Franchising allows it to take a slice of sales while cutting operating costs.
McDonald’s is trying to streamline its global operations, and changing its ownership structure to revolve more around franchises is a major part of that revamp.
In March last year, the firm said it was seeking partners to help it add more than 1,500 restaurants in China, Hong Kong and Korea over the next five years.
Under the agreement signed Monday, the US fast food giant will keep a 20% stake in its China business. Citic will hold a 52% share in the partnership while Caryle takes 28% of the new business.
Competitor Yum Brands, the owner of KFC and Pizza Hut, is also restructuring its China business.
Both McDonald’s and Yum Brands have been facing increasing competition from cheaper local rivals, particularly in China, where they are trying to recover from food safety scares.

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China’s anti-corruption agency says it is going to watch its officials more closely, after uncovering corruption within its own ranks.
It says 17 officials from the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) have been investigated for corruption since 2012.
A sweeping anti-corruption drive has been a defining feature of Xi Jinping’s presidency.
More than a million officials have been punished so far, says the government.
The CCDI has been front and centre in Mr Xi’s anti-corruption drive, directing the investigations into, and punishment of, officials across the country.
But the powerful watchdog has admitted that it is not immune.
It revealed this in surprising fashion last week — through a television show, co-produced with national broadcaster CCTV, featuring the confessions of senior inspectors who have since been jailed.
The China Daily newspaper reported at the weekend that a total of 7,900 disciplinary CCDI officials had been punished for some form of violation over the past four years. Among them were the 17 anti-corruption officials investigated for corruption.
Televised confessions have become de rigeur for Chinese authorities seeking to make an example of people.
The CCDI made a similar show last October featuring corrupt officials from other agencies, but the latest show focused squarely on the CCDI itself.
Titled «Forging Steel Requires Strength in One’s Body», it was unabashedly billed as a demonstration of resolve.
It was the most public admission to date of corruption within the CCDI ranks.
The three-part show featured CCDI inspectors penitently detailing how they pressured other officials, including higher-ranked ones, for bribes in return for granting them favours.
One official admitted taking 141m yuan ($20.4m; £16.7m) in bribes, along with more than 1,000 bottles of alcohol.
Xinhua news agency said the arrests of high-level CCDI inspectors «were a wake-up call: trust in any party cadre cannot replace supervision».
But in a separate article, the news agency reported that 93% of Chinese people were satisfied with the government’s anti-corruption efforts.
State-linked newspaper Global Times said the TV programme showed «the party’s determination to combat corruption and deter the officials».
The CCDI held its annual meeting at the weekend, where the agency put in place the new rule.
Its official statement did not contain much detail, but said it would involve «close supervision of work processes», including the «clear and accurate» handling of investigations, tip-offs, and money and materials in corruption cases.
It would also regulate procedures for interrogations and collection of evidence.
Anti-corruption agents have sweeping powers, including the authority to arrest people off the streets and interrogate them in secret, without the need for a lawyer.
The new rule, the statement proclaimed, would ensure «CCDI’s self-supervision is combined with supervision from the Party and society».
«Trust cannot replace supervision,» it said. «We must make sure the power granted by the Party and the people is not abused. «

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In this Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2017 photo, a shipyard worker walks to his car at the end of the workday at Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine.
(AP)
BATH, Maine – With President-elect Donald Trump demanding more ships, the Navy is proposing the biggest shipbuilding boom since the end of the Cold War to meet threats from a resurgent Russia and saber-rattling China.
The Navy’s 355-ship proposal released last month is even larger than what the Republican Trump had promoted on the campaign trail, providing a potential boost to shipyards that have struggled because budget caps that have limited money funding for ships.
At Maine’s Bath Iron Works, workers worried about the future want to build more ships but wonder where the billions of dollars will come from.
«Whether Congress and the government can actually fund it, is a whole other ball game,» said Rich Nolan, president of the shipyard’s largest union.
Boosting shipbuilding to meet the Navy’s 355-ship goal could require an additional $5 billion to $5.5 billion in annual spending in the Navy’s 30-year projection, according to an estimate by naval analyst Ronald O’Rourke at the Congressional Research Service.
The Navy’s revised Force Structure Assessment calls for adding another 47 ships including an aircraft carrier built in Virginia, 16 large surface warships built in Maine and Mississippi, and 18 attack submarines built in Connecticut, Rhode Island and Virginia. It also calls for more amphibious assault ships, expeditionary transfer docks and support ships.
In addition to being good for national security, a larger fleet would be better for both the sailors, who’d enjoy shorter deployments, and for the ships, which would have more down time for maintenance, said Matthew Paxton, president of the Shipbuilders Council of America, which represents most of the major Navy shipbuilders.
«Russia and China are going to continue to build up their navies,» he said. «The complexities aren’t going to get any easier. The Navy, more than any of the services, is our forward presence. We’re going to need this Navy. »
Many defense analysts agree that military capabilities have been degraded in recent years, especially when it comes to warships, aircraft and tanks.
The key is finding a way to increase Navy shipbuilding to achieve defense and economic gains «in a fiscally responsible way that does not pass the bill along to our children,» said independent Sen. Angus King of Maine, a member of the Armed Services Committee.
Even when Trump takes office, no one envisions a return to the heady days during the Cold War when workers were wiring, welding, grinding, pounding and plumbing ships at a furious pace to meet President Ronald Reagan’s audacious goal of a 600ship Navy.
The Navy currently has 274 deployable battle force ships, far short of its old goal of 308 ships.
Lawrence J. Korb, a retired naval officer and former assistant defense secretary under Reagan, said the Navy’s request isn’t realistic unless the Trump administration is willing to take the budget «to levels we’ve never seen. »
«You never have enough money to buy a perfect defense. You have to make trade-offs,» said Korb, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress.
But investors apparently are betting on more ships.
General Dynamics, which owns Bath Iron Works, Connecticut-based Electric Boat and California-based NASSCO, and Huntington Ingalls, which owns major shipyards in Virginia and in Mississippi, have both seen stock prices creep upward since the election.
«To the generic military shipbuilder, it’s a bull market right now,» said Ronald Epstein, an analyst at Bank of America’s Merrill Lynch division.
In Bath, the 6,000 shipbuilders aren’t going to count their eggs before they hatch.
«A lot of people are hopeful that it’ll happen,» Nolan said. «But they’re taking a wait-and-see approach. They’ve heard it before and then seen it not come to fruition. «

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