Donald Trump's unusual phone call with Taiwan risks irking China, analysts say. Credit:Bloomberg Mr Carr, currently the director of the Australia-China Relations Institute at the University of Technology, told Fairfax Media that to unravel this arrangement "would be to tragically inaugurate a cold war between the US and China". "That would be utterly, utterly unnecessary," Mr Carr said. "It is something that the world does not need, nor American security require." Should Mr Trump be signalling a departure from the so-called One China policy accepted by Beijing and Washington, it would represent the greatest shift in US foreign policy in decades, said Mr Carr. Aside from the heightened risk of conflict between the two nations, a dispute would prevent serious action on the world's most pressing security threat – North Korea's advancing nuclear weapons program.

Taiwan president Tsai Ing-wen. Credit:Getty Images No one could conceive of successful action being taken on resolving the Korean issue without the "deep engagement" of China, he said. Mr Carr said Australian diplomats now had a crucial role in educating Mr Trump's advisors about the region. Illustration: Matt Golding China's foreign minister Wang Yi said he hoped Beijing's relations with the US would not be "interfered with or damaged" by the telephone call with Taiwan, the Associated Press reported.

Mr Wang told Hong Kong's Phoenix TV the call was "just a small trick by Taiwan", adding the One China Policy was the cornerstone of US-China relations. As shock at the situation reverberated through global diplomatic circles, Mr Trump took to Twitter to protest that he did not instigate the call. An hour or so later he added in a second tweet, highlighting the island's trade links to the US:

But according to an unnamed source quoted in Taiwan's Taipei Times, the call was earlier arranged by Mr Trump's "Taiwan-friendly campaign staff after his aides briefed him on issues regarding Taiwan and the situation in the Taiwan Strait". Complicating the issue further, few analysts are able to gauge whether or not Mr Trump's actions were deliberate or accidental, or whether they might be influenced by his business interests. According to Taiwanese media, the Trump organisation recently sent an executive to the island to discuss building luxury hotels and resorts in the city of Taoyuan. Bonnie Glaser, a senior adviser at the US-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies, told Fairfax Media: "I doubt that Trump understands the intricacies of the Taiwan issue or Beijing's neuralgia about sovereignty matters, especially Taiwan. We probably shouldn't read any intent into this call." But Ms Glaser said if Mr Trump did seek to strengthen US ties with Taiwan after taking office, Beijing will react very strongly.

"Such support, they will fear, could embolden Tsai to pursue independence," she said, referring to the leader who rose to power as head of the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party [DPP]. "They already deeply mistrust her." Malcolm Cook, a senior fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore, said Mr Trump could become a "major factor" in increased economic and strategic tensions between the US and China. "The Taiwan Strait has always been a much more worrying security flashpoint for US-China relations than the South China Sea," Dr Cook, said. "Now with the DPP in power in Taiwan, Xi Jinping a strong conservative nationalist in charge in China and potentially a new US administration willing to diverge from long-standing US policy in East Asia, the flashpoint is heating up." Throughout the the US election campaign Mr Trump drew criticism for comments that were viewed as undermining stability in east Asia. He has long accused China of being a "currency manipulator" and advocated tariffs against Chinese imports that could provoke a trade war.

In April Mr Trump suggested during an interview with Fox News that Japan should consider arming itself with nuclear weapons in response to the threat from North Korea. And just as China has lately adopted a more assertive stance over claims in the South China Sea, it has also become more forceful over Taiwan. Loading Just last week China lodged a diplomatic complaint and seized a shipment of nine Singaporean armoured vehicles that were in transit in Hong Kong after Taiwan and Singapore held their regular joint military exercises. According to a report in The Diplomat, China's action demonstrated a "growing fearlessness in flexing its political influence in the region, and its determination to make an issue out of Taiwan".