Eliza Collins

USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — By calling Taiwan's president Friday, President-elect Donald Trump broke a 37-year precedent that limited direct talks with a U.S. president or president-elect and the leader of the island nation off the coast of China.

“President-elect Trump spoke with President Tsai Ing-wen of Taiwan, who offered her congratulations," a Trump transition team statement released Friday said. "During the discussion, they noted the close economic, political, and security ties exists between Taiwan and the United States. President-elect Trump also congratulated President Tsai on becoming President of Taiwan earlier this year.”

No U.S. president has spoken directly to a Taiwanese leaders since 1979, when President Jimmy Carter announced full diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China and ended relations with Taiwan.

Later Friday evening Trump tweeted about the call in an attempt to clarify who made the call.

And he expressed annoyance at the diplomatic subtleties that permit the U.S. sale of military equipment to Taiwan but eschew communications like a congratulatory call.

The White House immediately responded to the Trump phone call, emphasizing that there has been no change to the longstanding, bipartisan U.S. policy.

“We remain firmly committed to our ‘one China’ policy,” said Ned Price, a spokesman for President Obama’s National Security Council. “Our fundamental interest is in peaceful and stable cross-Strait relations.”

It is the second call this week in which Trump risked a diplomatic rift by talking to a foreign leader. On Wednesday, he spoke with Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, whom he praised as a great leader. A longtime U.S. ally, Pakistan has also been the source of frustration for U.S. leaders because of its nuclear weapons program and long rivalry with India, with which it has fought three major wars since 1947.

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Details of Trump's call were first reported by the Financial Times of Great Britain, which quoted former White House official Evan Medeiros: “The Chinese leadership will see this as a highly provocative action, of historic proportions."

Criticism was swift.

Ari Fleisher, who was press secretary under George W. Bush and has been critical of Trump, reflected on his time in the administration following the news.

Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy went on a tweetstorm over the news, calling for Trump to nominate a secretary of State, "like really really soon" to try and get a strategy together.

"I'm shocked, shocked, that ignoring the State Department and winging conversations with foreign leaders has triggered an international incident! " Daniel W. Drezner, who is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, said in an email to USA TODAY. "Now Americans have to hope that Beijing responds by retaliating against Trump's business interests rather than American interests in the Pacific Rim."

And some linked the call to Trump's business interests in Taiwan.

"Everything we feared about Donald Trump wreaking havoc is coming true," said Jessica Mackler, president of the Democratic super PAC American Bridge.." A report that Trump risks a major rift with China by speaking with the Taiwanese leader proves that Trump is dangerously incapable of keeping the United States safe — and this is still nearly two months before his inauguration. Was Donald Trump interested in breaking with more than forty years of U.S. policy because he wants to make money by building a hotel in Taiwan? Or is Trump simply threatening our precarious relationship with China because he is naive?"

American Bridge pointed to a Shangaiist article that said mayor of Taoyuan confirmed earlier this week that Trump was considering building hotels and resorts in the Taiwanese city.

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., saw no problem with Trump speaking to Tsai. He commended the conversation, "which reaffirms our commitment to the only democracy on Chinese soil."