Washington/Beijing — US president-elect Donald Trump spoke by phone with President Tsai Ing-wen of Taiwan, the first such contact between the two sides in nearly four decades, but China dismissed the call as a "petty action" by the self-ruled island it claims as its own. The 10-minute telephone call with Taiwan’s leadership was the first by a US president-elect or president since president Jimmy Carter switched diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China in 1979, acknowledging Taiwan as part of "one China". Hours after Friday’s call, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi blamed Taiwan for the exchange, avoiding what could have been a major rift with Washington just before Trump assumes the presidency. "This is just the Taiwan side engaging in a petty action, and cannot change the ‘one China’ structure already formed by the international community," Wang said at an academic forum in Beijing, state media reported. "I believe that it won’t change the longstanding ‘one China’ policy of the U...

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