Trump’s Taiwan ‘negotiating chip’ remark sparks alarm over how far he’d shift US-China policy
Minister Donald Trump He suggested on Friday that US arms sales to Taiwan could affect broader negotiations with China, prompting a swift response from Taiwan’s president and reigniting debate in Washington about the future of long-standing US policy towards the island.
Asked by Fox News whether he would continue to implement the delayed $14 billion arms package to Taiwan, Trump replied: “I’m putting that on hold for now, and that’s up to China. Frankly, it’s a very good negotiating chip for us. There are a lot of weapons.”
Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te backtracked hours later, calling US arms sales the “most vital deterrent” against regional conflict and insisting that Taiwan “will never be sacrificed or traded.”
Trump’s comments come as the administration continues $14 billion Taiwan arms package removed First approved in principle in late 2025, it has fueled a growing debate in Washington over whether Trump is steering US policy toward a more traditional form of “strategic ambiguity” or reshaping support for Taiwan from a more overtly transactional perspective tied to broader negotiations with Beijing.
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The White House pushed back on claims that Trump’s remarks signaled a withdrawal of US support for Taiwan.
A senior administration official told Fox News Digital that Trump will “make a decision pretty quickly” on the new Taiwan arms package, noting that the president has approved $11.1 billion in arms sales to Taiwan in December 2025.
The official also argued that Trump’s record on Taiwan arms sales exceeds that of previous administrations, saying Trump approved more sales in his first term than “any other president in history” and approved more sales in his first year back in office than former President Joe Biden approved during his entire presidency.
President Donald Trump has suggested that US arms sales to Taiwan could affect broader negotiations with China.
(Reuters)
President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping have heard each other out on Taiwan, but Trump has emphasized that he has not bowed to Xi’s assertions of control over Taiwan and has refused to reassure Xi that the United States will not defend Taiwan against a Chinese invasion.
Ahead of Trump’s latest summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, bipartisan lawmakers warned in a letter that “America’s support for Taiwan is non-negotiable.”
The Taiwan issue had already emerged as one of the most sensitive flashpoints surrounding Trump’s mid-May summit with Xi in Beijing.
Following the meeting, China’s foreign ministry said Xi warned Trump that Taiwan remains the “most important issue” in US-China relations and that mishandling it could lead to “conflicts and even clashes” between the two powers.
The White House later downplayed the exchange, and a senior administration official told Fox News Digital that both sides reiterated their long-standing positions on Taiwan.
For decades, U.S. policy toward Taiwan has been based on a stance of “strategic ambiguity” that favors Taiwan’s self-defense while avoiding an explicit commitment to militarily defend the island in the event of a Chinese attack.
Trump’s comments sparked conflicting reactions among foreign policy analysts; While some China hawks have warned that treating Taiwan’s arms sales as a bargaining chip could weaken deterrence and upset U.S. allies in the Indo-Pacific, others have argued that the remarks reflect a return to a more traditional interpretation of strategic uncertainty after increasingly clear U.S. signals toward Taiwan.
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“Trading Taiwan’s security from Beijing in exchange for rhetoric would be a strategic mistake of historic proportions,” said retired Rear Admiral Mark Montgomery, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies think tank. “If the President does not resume arms sales to Taiwan, he will jeopardize U.S.-Taiwan relations and undermine U.S. credibility globally.”
Bonnie Glaser, managing director of the Indo-Pacific Program at the German Marshall Fund think tank, argued that Trump’s comments blur an important distinction at the heart of long-standing US Taiwan policy.
“Strategic uncertainty has nothing to do with supplying weapons to Taiwan,” Glaser told Fox News Digital. It’s just a matter of whether the United States would defend Taiwan if it were attacked, the official said.
“The Taiwan Relations Act requires the United States to sell defensive arms to Taiwan. No president has said that U.S. arms sales to Taiwan are a useful bargaining chip.”
But some foreign policy analysts argued that Trump’s comments reflected a deliberate effort to refocus US policy around American priorities.
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“Trump has pretty much shaken up the Taiwan debate in Washington,” Lyle Goldstein, Asia director at Defense Priorities, told Fox News Digital.
The Taiwan issue had already emerged as one of the most sensitive flashpoints surrounding Trump’s mid-May summit with Xi in Beijing.
Goldstein argued that Trump’s comments reflected a return to a more measured interpretation of “strategic uncertainty” after years of increasingly clear U.S. signals toward Taiwan under the Biden administration.
“Overall, his approach has been to return US policy to ‘strategic uncertainty,’ unlike the Biden administration, which is lurching dangerously toward ‘strategic clarity,’ which threatens to trigger a US-China war, especially in the near term,” Goldstein said. he said.
Former president during his presidency Joe Biden He has repeatedly suggested that the United States would defend Taiwan militarily in the event of a Chinese attack – which critics said had moved Washington closer to “strategic clarity”, although White House officials claimed there was no formal policy change.
Critics argued that Biden’s words increased tensions with Beijing, while supporters said the comments strengthened deterrence against possible Chinese aggression.
Goldstein argued that Trump’s willingness to openly discuss arms sales to Taiwan in the context of broader US-China negotiations reflects a more measured approach aimed at maintaining stability between Washington and Beijing.
“In effect, Trump is acknowledging with these new comments that both sides are responsible for maintaining peace in the Taiwan Strait,” Goldstein said. “He even went so far as to sternly warn the leadership in Taipei against taking unnecessary risks.”
Trump has long taken a more transactional approach to Taiwan than many traditional US foreign policy hawks; he has previously argued that the island should pay the United States for its defense and accused Taiwan of “stealing” America’s semiconductor industry.
He has also repeatedly framed Taiwan through the lens of semiconductor competition and supply chain interdependence, arguing that the United States should capture a larger share of advanced chip production.
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“Trump’s new thinking on Taiwan reveals a conscious approach that recognizes the basic and fundamental truth that Taiwan is not a vital national security interest of the United States and that the US-China relationship far outweighs the US-Taiwan relationship in importance,” Goldstein said. he added.
The key question now facing lawmakers and U.S. allies is whether Trump’s rhetoric will ultimately affect the timing or terms of the pending Taiwan arms package. It is a test that many analysts see as critical to understanding how the administration plans to approach Taiwan going forward.
Original article source: Trump’s ‘negotiating chip’ statement on Taiwan raises alarm about how far he can go in US-China policy
