Trump says decision on Taiwan weapons coming ‘soon’
“I’m talking to him about this issue. We had a good meeting and we’ll come to a decision very soon,” Trump said, adding that his country has a “good relationship” with the Chinese leader, who claims to accept the self-governing island of Taiwan as its own territory.
In a phone call with Trump on February 4, Xi called for “mutual respect” in relations with the United States while warning Washington about arms sales to the democratically governed island.
“The Taiwan issue is the most important issue in Sino-US relations… The US should carefully handle arms sales to Taiwan,” Xi said, according to the Chinese state broadcaster.
Trump and Xi are expected to meet in Beijing in April.
The Chinese Communist Party has never governed Taiwan, but Beijing claims the island of 23 million people as part of its territory and has not ruled out using force to annex it.
Washington does not officially recognize Taiwan but is the island territory’s main military backer, though the tone of that support has softened somewhat under Trump. The United States approved $11 billion worth of weapons for Taiwan in December, Taipei said.
Shortly thereafter, China launched massive live-fire exercises to simulate a blockade around Taiwan’s major ports.
Although Trump has adopted a softer tone regarding support for Taiwan in his second term, the issue remains a problem in US-China relations.
On Saturday, Beijing’s top diplomat Wang Yi warned the United States against a “conspiracy” against Taiwan, saying it could lead to a “confrontation” with China.
Speaking at the Munich Security Conference in Germany, Foreign Minister Wang said that in the future, the United States may adopt a China policy that includes “provoking and conspiring to divide China over Taiwan and cross China’s red line.”
Taiwan has spent billions of dollars over the past decade improving its military, but faces growing US pressure to do more to defend itself against China.
Taiwan President Lai Ching-te has proposed his government spend $40 billion in extra defense spending over eight years, but the plan has been blocked by the opposition-controlled parliament 10 times since the beginning of December.
On Thursday, dozens of US lawmakers called on Taiwan’s opposition political parties to stop blocking the move.
In an exclusive interview with AFP last week, President Lai said he was confident the defense budget would be passed.
