TAIPEI: A senior Taiwanese official has expressed concern that US President Donald Trump might make concessions on the self-governed island in his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, saying that Taiwan is working hard to prevent such a scenario.
“What we are most afraid of is to put Taiwan on the menu of the talk between Xi and President Trump,” Taiwan’s Deputy Foreign Minister Francois Wu said last Friday in an English-language interview with Bloomberg News.
“We worry, and we need to avoid that.”
Trump is set to travel to Beijing on May 14 to 15 for a summit with Xi that’s widely expected to include a variety of business deals and purchasing commitments.
It was delayed from late March because of the Iran war and the need for Trump to stay in Washington.
Taiwan – a democratic island claimed as Chinese territory by Beijing – is high on Xi’s list of priorities. At the meeting, Xi is likely to press Trump to agree to change the island’s status by opposing Taiwan independence.
Moreover, a verbal confirmation of that or formal change in US policy would be a major win for Beijing.
Asked if the United States has given Taipei any assurances that the language won’t be changed, Wu said: “Nothing is 100% sure.”
A White House official said Trump expects a very positive visit with Xi and that the administration’s stance on relations with Taiwan, known as the One China policy, is unchanged.
Under the policy, the United States acknowledges Beijing as China’s sole government without clarifying its position on Taiwan’s legal status.
The United States has maintained unofficial relations with Taipei under that arrangement.
Wu added that Taiwan is looking to increase common interests with the United States, citing its semiconductor industry and Taiwan’s significant investments in the country as the primary reason for his optimism.
The “more we share a common national interest, the more I think we feel comfortable that we will not be put on the menu”, he said. “For now, we feel comfortable.”
Where Trump routinely talks warmly of Xi, he has a number of advisers who are hawkish on China and who have intervened in the past, including when there was internal debate about whether to allow China to buy Nvidia Corp’s advanced Blackwell chip, sources said.
The engagements between Taipei and Washington have been positive, the sources said, but they added that it’s impossible to get reassurance from the White House about what exactly will be discussed or agreed to in the Beijing summit.
They also said that Trump’s aides don’t know – and don’t pretend to know – how the meeting will play out.
That’s in part what causes the residual worry.
US officials have deflected on the question and said the meeting will focus on trade and investment matters.
They want to focus the Beijing trip on ensuring better access to critical minerals and rare earths that China last year cut off through sweeping export controls.
While the flow of the metals and minerals has picked up since the two leaders reached an agreement last fall in South Korea, the trade is still not back to the level it was before the controls took effect.
China’s ruling Communist Party considers Taiwan its territory and has vowed to claim it someday, despite never having controlled the democratic island.
Officials in Taiwan reject that stance, saying that the island is de-facto independent and has never been governed by Beijing. — Bloomberg
