US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping tour Zhongnanhai Garden on 15 May in Beijing, China. Trump and other US officials were finishing up a visit intended to address the Iran conflict, trade imbalances, and the Taiwan situation while establishing new bilateral boards for economic and AI oversight.
Evan Vucci-Pool/Getty Images
- Trump said he would speak with Taiwan’s President Lai, unprecedented since the US recognised Beijing in nineteen seventy-nine.
- The move could anger China, which claims Taiwan as its territory and views Lai as a separatist.
- Trump has approved major weapons sales to Taiwan but also touts his relationship with China’s Xi as “amazing”.
US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he would speak with Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te, an unprecedented move for a US leader that could roil US relations with China.
US and Taiwanese presidents have not spoken directly since Washington shifted diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979.
Beijing has never renounced the use of force to take control of the democratically governed island. It has been angered by the longstanding US military support for Taiwan to deter Chinese military action.
“I’ll speak to him,” Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland before boarding Air Force One when asked about Lai.
“I speak to everybody … We’ll work on that, the Taiwan problem.”
It’s the second time in a week that Trump has said he intends to speak to Lai, dispelling initial speculation that his first mention of it after meeting China’s leader, Xi Jinping, last week was a slip of the tongue.
READ | Taiwan ‘will never be sacrificed’ in US and China deal, vows President Lai Ching-te
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on when such a call might happen or what would be discussed. China’s embassy in Washington also did not respond immediately.
‘Amazing’ relationship with XI
Trump administration officials have noted that Trump has approved the sale of more weapons to Taiwan than any other US president.
But he has also repeatedly touted his relationship with Xi as “amazing.” After last week’s trip to Beijing, Trump said he has not decided whether to proceed with a major weapons sale worth up to $14 billion to Taiwan, adding to uncertainty about US support for the island.
Any direct US-Taiwan conversation would ordinarily anger China, which sees the island as its own territory.
Taiwan President Lai Ching-te.
Taiwan Presidential Office/Anadolu via Getty Images
However, Trump’s language has sent mixed signals to Taipei. While Lai has welcomed the chance to speak to Trump, the US president’s reference to the “Taiwan problem” echoes Beijing’s phrasing.
Lai, who Beijing views as a separatist, said earlier on Wednesday that if he got the opportunity to speak to Trump, he would say his government is committed to maintaining the status quo across the Taiwan Strait, and that it was China that was undermining peace with its massive military build-up in the Indo-Pacific.
Lai said:
No country has the right to annex Taiwan. The people of Taiwan pursue a democratic and free way of life, and democracy and freedom should not be regarded as provocation.
Under US law, Washington is required to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself, and both Republican and Democratic US lawmakers have urged the Trump administration to continue with weapons sales.
Underscoring Taiwan’s strategic importance to the US, the island of 23 million people is the fourth-largest US trading partner, behind China, which has 1.4 billion people. Much of that trade is based on exports of advanced semiconductors to the US, which fuels the global economy.
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