TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – According to an alleged e-mail by Hillary Clinton published by WikiLeaks, the former United States Secretary of State was willing to discuss a New York Times editorial calling on Washington to ditch Taiwan in return for China writing off debt.

Her adviser Jake Sullivan passed on the editorial to Clinton, and she replied, “I saw it and thought it was so clever. Let’s discuss,” according to WikiLeaks.

The editorial, titled “To Save Our Economy, Ditch Taiwan” appeared on the newspaper’s website on Nov.20, 2011 and was written by Paul Kane, a former international security fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School.

In the piece, the author says President Barack Obama “should enter into closed-door negotiations with Chinese leaders to write off the $1.14 trillion of American debt currently held by China in exchange for a deal to end American military assistance and arms sales to Taiwan and terminate the current United States-Taiwan defense arrangement by 2015.”

The proposal would benefit the U.S. in that it would cut its debt, improve its economy, and keep it out of a potential war with China over Taiwan, Kane wrote.

It is not clear from the WikiLeaks documents whether Clinton actually discussed the issue and to what conclusion she came.