WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump said Monday he will speak to Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping about future US arms sales to Taiwan as he predicted Beijing will not seize the self-governing democracy.
Asked if the United States should keep selling weapons to Taiwan, Trump did not answer directly but said: “I’m going to have that discussion with President Xi.”
“President Xi would like us not to, and I’ll have that discussion. That’s one of the many things I’ll be talking about,” Trump told reporters ahead of his trip to Beijing this week.
The United States recognizes only Beijing but under domestic law is required to provide weapons to Taiwan so that it can defend itself.
Under the 1982 “Six Assurances,” a key foundation of US policy on Taiwan after the switch of recognition, the United States said that it would not “consult” with Beijing about arms sales to the island.
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Trump appeared to downplay the prospect of China trying to seize Taiwan by taking advantage of the US military’s preoccupation and dwindling munitions after the United States joined Israel in attacking Iran.
Trump, after referencing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, said of Taiwan, “I don’t think it’ll happen.”
“I think we’ll be fine. I have a very good relationship with President Xi. He knows I don’t want that to happen,” he said.
But Trump also noted that the United States was “very, very far away” from Taiwan while he said of Xi, “He’s 67 miles.”
“It’s a little bit of a difference. But, you know, there’s a lot of support for Taiwan, from Japan and from countries from that area,” Trump said, referring to the increasingly robust support for Taipei from Japan’s conservative government.
The Taiwanese-controlled Kinmen archipelago lies just two kilometers (1.2 miles) off China’s coast although mainland Taiwan is around 160 kilometers (100 miles) from mainland China.
Trump also said he would ask Xi again to free Jimmy Lai, the Hong Kong pro-democracy media mogul who was sentenced in February to 20 years in prison, effectively a death sentence for the ailing 78-year-old.
Trump, however, also appeared to show understanding for the position of China, which clamped down hard on Hong Kong after mass pro-democracy protests in 2019 in the former British colony.
“He caused lots of turmoil for China,” Trump said of Lai.
“He tried to do the right thing. He wasn’t successful, went to jail, and people would like him out,” he said.
“I’d like to see him get out, too. So I’ll bring him up again.”
Lai’s cause has been embraced by an unusually broad spectrum in the United States including media rights advocates and conservative Christians drawn to Lai due to his devout Catholicism.
