US President Donald Trump has said his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping gave him assurances that Beijing would take no action on Taiwan, as long as the Republican leader was in power.
In an extract from a CBS News interview first released on Sunday, Trump said the island, which Beijing regards as part of its territory, to be reunited by force if necessary, “never even came up as a subject” when the two leaders met last week.
Most countries, including the United States, do not recognise Taiwan as an independent state, but Washington is opposed to any attempt to take the self-ruled island by force and is committed to supplying it with weapons.
“You’ll find out if it happens, and [Xi] understands the answer to that,” Trump said when asked by the interviewer whether he would order US forces to defend Taiwan.
“He never brought it up. People were a little surprised at that. He never brought it up because he understands it and he understands it very well.”
However, he declined to elaborate, noting that “I can’t give away my secrets ... the other side knows”.
“But they understand what’s going to happen. And he has openly said, and his people have openly said at meetings, ‘we would never do anything while President Trump is president’, because they know the consequences,” he said.
The two leaders held talks on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in South Korea on Thursday – their first in-person meeting since Trump’s return to the White House earlier this year.
Beijing regards Taiwan as a core interest and “the first red line that cannot be crossed” in bilateral relations. In recent years, the issue has occupied a few lines in the official statements that follow face-to-face meetings between the countries’ leaders.
After Trump’s remarks that the issue had not arisen during his meeting with Xi, Beijing’s readout of the encounter, released by state news agency Xinhua, also made no mention of Taiwan.
It was a stark departure from past China-US discussions. Beijing has previously used such occasions to restate its position at length and warn Washington against supporting “Taiwan independence” or arming the island.
In his phone call with Trump in January, Xi urged the American leader at the start of his second term to “handle the Taiwan issue with utmost caution”. However, both sides omitted the subject from their most recent call in September, instead focusing on trade.
Trump has appeared reluctant to publicly throw his weight behind Taipei in the same way his predecessors did. In September, he declined to approve more than US$400 million in military aid meant for Taiwan.
Meanwhile, scepticism has risen in Taiwan about the steadfastness of America’s defence commitment under Trump.
In a social media post on Saturday, Beijing’s embassy in Washington shared high-resolution satellite images of Taiwan, including tourist spots such as Sun Moon Lake, Alishan, the city and port of Taipei, and Cape Eluanbi, the island’s southernmost point.
“There is but one China in the world; Taiwan is an inalienable part of China’s territory. Every inch of Taiwan province, China, is vibrant under the Jilin-1 space satellite’s perspective,” the post said.
Some buildings were clearly identifiable in the images, which also featured Hsinchu Science Park, which hosts hi-tech companies including the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, the world’s largest contract chipmaker.
Such cutting-edge strength sits at the heart of global supply chains and the escalating US-China tech rivalry.
In recent years, Beijing has invested heavily in critically important chips that power everything from cellphones and other consumer devices to electric cars, as well as applications for artificial intelligence and quantum computing. -- SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
