The Daily Show - President-Elect Trump Talks to Taiwan

The Daily Show - President-Elect Trump Talks to Taiwan

Say what you will about Donald Trump ,but you cannot deny

the man knows how to throw a punch.

Which shouldn't be a surprise, because with his fists,

there's very little wind resistance.

-They just, um... you know? 

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He's basically bullied all of his critics,

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he forcibly renamed his political rivals,

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and he even called the New York Times

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"the failing New York Times" so much

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that they finally just went with it.

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those were just small fry.

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You see, he's always had his sights set

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on a much larger enemy.

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I always hate that I have to have my ties made in China.

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We can't continue to allow China to rape our country.

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China is ripping us off.

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They're taking our jobs.

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We want deal!

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China! China. China. China.

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-"China!

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Quick question-- how are you gonna fight a country

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when you can't even pronounce their name?

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-Jyna! Jyna.

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I doesn't sound like a country. It sounds like a toddler

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who just learned the name of her private parts.

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-That's what it sounds like. 

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-"Jyna! Jyna!" -"Jyna, Jyna, Jyna! Jyna!" 

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"That's where my ties come from!"

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And, by the way, by the way,

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why do Donald Trump's suits fit so poorly?

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Like, he's talking about all his clothes made in China.

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I don't understand why they fit like this.

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They're made for you and by you.

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Why would they fit so badly?

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Like, I wouldn't be shocked if his suits fit like that

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because he exaggerates his measurements to his tailors.

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"No, my arm is this long. It's this long!"

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It doesn't make sense.

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Now, since the '80s,

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Trump has been itching to pick a fight with Jyna.

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And even though it's still 44 days

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before he officially takes office,

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he's already starting

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In an unprecedented move,

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Trump took a call from Taiwan's president,

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which broke more than three decades of diplomatic tradition.

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WOMAN: Some foreign policy experts

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calling it a foreign policy blunder.

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MAN: His phone call with Taiwan's president

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touched off something of a weekend diplomatic firestorm

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with China, and broke decades of presidential protocol.

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Yup, once again, Donald Trump breaks protocol,

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which is basically his specialty, because since Nixon,

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all American presidents have publicly regarded Taiwan

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as being a part of China, but not Trump. Yeah.

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Donald Trump-- he treats protocol

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-like the Kool-Aid man treats walls. 

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I think there are a lot of questions going forward about

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what Donald Trump's policy towards China will be.

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It took decades to develop the ground

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on which we talk to China,

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and Donald Trump tore it up today.

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If I were China right now, I would have no idea

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what's going on-- and I'm not a hundred percent sure

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Trump does, either.

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Nobody knows what Trump's plan is.

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He's just that kind of guy. He wakes up and he's like,

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"Who said that? Me? Oh, okay, okay. Okay."

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Because nobody knows if he has a plan.

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This could be blunder, or it could be his opening chess move.

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You know? Or actually, it's too complicated.

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Maybe his opening checkers move.

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Uh... no, no, I'm sorry, I'm sorry,

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his opening Hungry Hungry Hippos move.

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That looks right, that looks right, that looks right.

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Now, look, now, look, the president of the--

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there's a lot more skill in that game than you think--

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now, nook, the president of the United States has the right

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to determine America's policy toward China, I don't deny that.

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What's worrying is that Donald Trump doesn't seem to know

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which direction he's shifting it,

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or even how he's shifting it.

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Because now Trump is positioning his Taiwan call

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as taking an aggressive stance against China.

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But when the story first broke, Trump implied in a tweet

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that he didn't plan it.

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Said he spoke to the president of Taiwan

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because she called him out of the blue.

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Which is even more frightening.

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How are people able to call

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the president of the United States... randomly?

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And also, if that's the case,

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why is he answering random calls?

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This is president-elect of the United States!

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It's just like, ring-ring, and he's like,

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"Oh, that could be a world leader,

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"or my Uber calling. Hold on.

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Yes, this is Donald."

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"Hello, Donald. This is Tsai Ing-wen from Taiwan."

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"Uh-huh. Yeah, I'm waving. Is that you in the Camry?

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Is that you?"

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Who is this man?!

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And this is why everybody's freaking out.

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Because it doesn't look like Trump knows what he's doing.

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And China's relationship with Taiwan is too tricky

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to not know what you're doing.

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You see, just like Dwayne Johnson,

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uh, wasn't always The Rock,

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-(laughter) -China... wasn't always communist.

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And after its communist revolution in 1949,

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all anti-communists fled to Taiwan

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and declared themselves independent from China.

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That's how it all started. Which China vehemently rejects.

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In fact, in Shanghai's English-language bookstores,

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they actually unwrap new English dictionaries

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and they rip out the page that has the entry for Taiwan.

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That's how seriously they take it in China.

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Which is not just censorship, I mean, that's some crazy

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ex-lover behavior, that's... I mean, because you realize,

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when you rip out a page of a dictionary,

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you're not just losing Taiwan, you're losing

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all the other words that have "T" around it.

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Like the word "taken" is on the same page as Taiwan.

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"Taken" is gone. That would explain

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why Liam Neeson's movies flopped in China.

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They probably had no meaning.

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They probably had to redub all of his lines.

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He was like, "What? My daughter's been gotten?"

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But that's... that's how China rolls.

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And because America tries to respect both China and Taiwan,

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their relationship ends up being, uh, complicated.

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NEWSMAN: Ever since Nixon's visit to China in 1972,

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the U.S. has had a One-China policy,

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recognizing only one of the two countries

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that call themselves China.

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...recognizing Taiwan through defense contracts

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and informal contacts, but not as a separate government

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with its own diplomatic standing.

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Trump tweeted...

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 "It is weird that China accepts America selling weapons 

                      to Taiwan, but will not stand for a phone call."

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That is weird. But it's a weird thing

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that you have to respect.

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Because it's a matter of respect.

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It's sort of like when you go to visit your grandma.

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Out of respect, you and your girlfriend

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sleep in separate rooms.

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Yeah. She knows that you're together,

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but you just act like it's not happening.

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But Donald Trump, he doesn't do respect.

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He doesn't play protocol. When he's at Grandma's,

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And the crazy thing is we have to get involved.

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Now we're reading up.

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Do you understand how strange that is, by the way?

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We are reading up on China, because we're afraid

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that the president of the United States

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doesn't know what he's doing? We're like, "All right,

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we're gonna read up just in case, Donald."

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Because, look, no one's ever messed with China

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like this before.

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No one really knows what the ramifications will be.

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It may be nothing.

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Or it could lead to a war.

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Or maybe, maybe China tries to hurt America's economy

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by stopping all trade.

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These are all really bad outcomes.

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Really bad.

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I will say this, though, if a trade war means

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we don't have to see him in one of those suits anymore,