CNN correspondent Fareed Zakaria, a big critic of Donald Trump's during the presidential campaign, emerged as an advocate Tuesday of the President-elect concerning his contentious phone call with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-Wen.
"I think it could signal that Trump is searching for leverage with China, which is not a bad thing," he said on CNN's "New Day" with Chris Cuomo and Alisyn Camerota.
"I think the key here is that it should be part of a thought-through strategy where they have figured out, 'Here are the things we want from China, here are the points of leverage we are going to use.' In that context, making some overtures to Taiwan is not a bad idea. Just the way in which it was done, and the fact, for example, no allies of ours seemed to have been informed of it, the kind of Twitter-based diplomacy, if you will."
Trump's phone call with Tsai last Friday broke decades of diplomatic protocol as the U.S. has not had formal relations with the island since 1979. It also resulted in China's foreign ministry lodging a formal complaint with the United States.
But Zakaria saw positives from the call.
"The truth of the matter is, we need leverage with China," he said. "China is a country that cooperates with the United States on many issues, but on many issues we need to be able to push them harder."
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