The outgoing president Barack Obama cautioned president-elect Donald Trump against allowing relations with China to slip into “full conflict mode” as Trump put Beijing’s nose out of joint with a succession of controversial pre-inauguration foreign policy interventions.

While Speaking at the White House conference, Obama urged his successor to beware of provoking a “very significant” response from Beijing over Taiwan.

Obama said that, Donald Trump needed to grasp “that for China the issue of Taiwan is as important as anything on their docket”.

“The idea of ‘One China’ is at the heart of their conception as a nation and so if you are going to upend this understanding, you have to have thought through what are the consequences,” Obama said.

“Because the Chinese will not treat that the way they will treat some other issues. They won’t even treat it the way they treat issues around the South China Sea, where we have had a lot of tensions. This goes to the core of how they see themselves and their reaction on this issue could end up being very significant.”

Donald Trump spreading falsehood

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