Presidential Office denies plans to call Trump

Taipei, Nov. 7 (CNA) Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) on Thursday rejected a media report that President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) was considering calling U.S. President-elect Donald Trump to congratulate him on the election victory.

"There are no plans to seek to make a call [to Trump]," Kuo said in a statement, noting that the report, which has not been verified by the Presidential Office, was "not true."

The president has sent a congratulatory letter to Trump and Vice President-elect J.D. Vance through Taiwan's representative office in Washington, the spokeswoman added.

Bloomberg on Thursday cited unnamed sources as reporting that Taipei would try to make the call, as did former President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) in December 2016.

Tsai and then President-elect Trump held a telephone conversation a month after the latter was elected president, marking the first time since 1979 that a U.S. president had directly spoken with a Taiwanese president.

In the Bloomberg report, Deputy Secretary-General to the President Mark Ho (何志偉) responded to a question about whether there were plans to call Trump by saying, "We will follow the usual practice to contact and congratulate him."