White House reassures after Trump's tweets raise concerns

US President-elect Donald Trump speaks at election night rally in Manhattan, New York, US, November 9, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]

The US is committed to the one-China policy, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest reiterated on Monday. The policy has been in place for almost 40 years and has been aimed at promoting peace and stability in the Taiwan Straits, Earnest said.

After criticism of the phone call by China and many foreign policy experts in the US, Trump tweeted on Sunday, touching on highly sensitive issues, including what he called China's "devaluation of currency" and the South China Sea.

"I am not sure how that benefits the United States," Earnest said of Trump's latest actions. "I'm not sure how that benefits the United States' relationship with Taiwan. I am not sure how that benefits the Taiwanese people. I am not sure how that benefits the US relationship with China."

US State Department deputy spokesman Mark Toner credited stable and peaceful cross-Straits relations since 1979 to the fact that the US has followed the one-China policy.

"That has not changed previous to or since the phone call by the president-elect," he told the daily briefing on Monday.

Toner said that "it's only through consistency and implementing this policy, standing by this policy, (that) you have ... stable cross-Straits relations".

The comments from the White House demonstrate that the actions by Trump not only caused outrage and caution from the Chinese government and people, but also go against Washington's fundamental interests, Dong Chunling, a researcher with the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, said on Tuesday.