President-elect Donald Trump enjoys using social media to share his thoughts, but conducting foreign policy on Twitter is “ill-advised,” China’s state media said Tuesday.
“Engaging in ‘Twitter diplomacy’ is ill-advised,” Xinhua News Agency wrote in a commentary Tuesday.
Tweeting has become a “habit” for the incoming president, Xinhua explained.
Over the past month, Trump has targeted China in several critical tweets blasting China for manipulating its currency, engaging in unfair trading practices, militarizing the South China Sea, unlawfully seizing a U.S. naval unmanned underwater vehicle in international waters, taking advantage of the U.S., and failing to rein in North Korea.
Did China ask us if it was OK to devalue their currency (making it hard for our companies to compete), heavily tax our products going into..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 4, 2016
their country (the U.S. doesn’t tax them) or to build a massive military complex in the middle of the South China Sea? I don’t think so!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 4, 2016
China steals United States Navy research drone in international waters – rips it out of water and takes it to China in unprecedented act.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 17, 2016
We should tell China that we don’t want the drone they stole back.- let them keep it!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 18, 2016
China has been taking out massive amounts of money & wealth from the U.S. in totally one-sided trade, but won’t help with North Korea. Nice!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2017
“Trump’s tweets have sparked concern in the U.S. and around the world,” Xinhua argued in another article Wednesday.
China held up Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer’s statement in his first speech as Senate minority leader Tuesday that “America cannot afford a Twitter presidency” as an example.
Xinhua also mentioned several liberal media outlets and their complaints over Trump’s tweets, noting the president-elect’s tweets are “disrupting relations between partners and competitors.”
“It is common sense that foreign policy is not child’s play, and even less is it like doing business deals,” Xinhua asserted. “Twitter should not become an instrument of foreign policy.”
Trump’s incoming press secretary, Sean Spicer, said late last month that Trump will continue to use Twitter once he takes office.
“He has this direct pipeline to the American people, where he can talk back and forth,” Spicer revealed to the Rhode Island news outlet WPRI in a recent interview. “His use of social media in particular … is going to be something that’s never been seen before.”
“I think that’s gonna be just a really exciting part of the job,” he added. China, where Twitter is banned, disagrees.
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