McCain: Taiwan is 'an independent nation' | Washington Examiner: President-elect Trump's overtures to Taiwan represent a "healthy" approach to U.S. policy in the Pacific, according to Sen. John McCain, who on Monday backed Trump by saying Taiwan is an independent country.
"I think it's healthy," the Arizona Republican told CNN's Jake Tapper. "They're an independent nation, Taiwan, and I believe in the One China policy, but they are a democracy, which China is not and I believe that a conversation with the president of a freely elected, democratic Taiwan is more than appropriate."
McCain's remarks lend Trump the support of a leading Republican foreign policy maker in the Senate on an issue that has provoked broad criticism from national security experts. Trump rocked the foreign policy world by taking a phone call from President Tsai Ing-wen, the first known direct contact between an American Taiwanese leader since 1979, and then suggested that he might abandon the official U.S. position that Taiwan and mainland China form a single country.
