US President Donald Trump has cautioned Taiwan against formally declaring independence from China.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not looking to have somebody go independent,\u201d the US president told Fox News on Friday, at the end of his two-day summit with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Beijing.<\/p>\n
Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te has previously stated that Taiwan does not need to declare formal independence because it already sees itself as a sovereign nation.<\/p>\n
The US has long supported Taiwan, including being bound by law to provide it with a means of self-defence, but has frequently had to square this alliance with maintaining a diplomatic relationship with China.<\/p>\n
Trump earlier said he had \u201cmade no commitment either way\u201d about the self-governing island \u2013 which China claims as part of its territory and has not ruled out taking by force.<\/p>\n
Washington\u2019s established position is that it does not support Taiwanese independence, with continued ties with Beijing being contingent on its acceptance that there is only one Chinese government.<\/p>\n
Beijing has been vocal in its dislike of Taiwan\u2019s president, who it has previously described as a \u201ctroublemaker\u201d and a \u201cdestroyer of cross-strait peace\u201d.<\/p>\n
Many Taiwanese consider themselves to be part of a separate nation \u2013 though most are in favour of maintaining the status quo in which Taiwan neither declares independence from China nor unites with it.<\/p>\n
In his interview with Fox News, Trump reiterated that US policy on the matter had not changed.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know, we\u2019re supposed to travel 9,500 miles (15,289km) to fight a war. I\u2019m not looking for that. I want them to cool down. I want China to cool down.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the flight back to Washington, the US president had told reporters that he and Xi had spoken \u201ca lot\u201d about the island, but said he had declined to discuss whether the US would defend it.<\/p>\n
Xi \u201cfeels very strongly\u201d about the island and \u201cdoesn\u2019t want to see a movement for independence\u201d, Trump said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Taiwan question is the most important issue in China-US relations,\u201d Xi warned during the talks, according to Chinese state media, adding: \u201cIf mishandled, the two nations could collide or even come into conflict.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked if he foresaw a conflict with China over Taiwan, Trump had said: \u201cNo, I don\u2019t think so. I think we\u2019ll be fine. [Xi] doesn\u2019t want to see a war.\u201d<\/p>\n
China has ramped up military drills around the island in recent years, raising tensions in the region and testing the balance that Washington has struck.<\/p>\n
Late last year, the Trump administration announced an $11bn ($8bn) package of weapons to be sold to Taiwan, including advanced rocket launchers and a variety of missiles, which Beijing condemned.<\/p>\n
Trump said he would soon decide whether that sale could go ahead, adding that he and Xi had discussed it \u201cin great detail\u201d.<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cI\u2019m going to say I have to speak to the person that right now is, you know, you know who he is, that\u2019s running Taiwan.\u201d<\/p>\n
The US does not have formal relations with Taiwan, though it maintains substantial unofficial relations. US presidents do not traditionally speak directly to Taiwan\u2019s leader, and to do so would be likely to cause significant tensions with Beijing, which considers Taiwan\u2019s President Lai Ching-te a separatist.<\/p>\n
Taiwan Deputy Foreign Minister Chen Ming-chi said on Saturday that Taiwan would need to clarify the exact meaning of Trump\u2019s remarks.<\/p>\n
Chen also said that US arms sales to Taiwan are something confirmed under US law.<\/p>\n
\u201cTaiwan-US arms sales have always been a cornerstone of regional peace and stability,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for President Lai quoted by Reuters news agency said that American arms sales are part of the \u201cUS security commitment\u201d to Taiwan and \u201cserve as a shared deterrent against regional threats\u201d.<\/p>\n
Trump also told Fox News: \u201cWe\u2019re not looking to have wars, and if you kept it the way it is, I think China\u2019s going to be OK with that. But we\u2019re not looking to have somebody say, \u2018Let\u2019s go independent because the United States is backing us.’\u201d<\/p>\n
The US has previously provoked anger from China for seeming to soften its stance on independence.<\/p>\n
Its State Department dropped a statement from its website reiterating Washington\u2019s opposition to Taiwanese independence in February 2025 \u2013 something Beijing said \u201csends a wrong\u2026 signal to separatist forces\u201d.<\/p>\n
US officials in Taiwan said at the time: \u201cWe have long stated that we oppose any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side.\u201d<\/p>\n
Taiwan\u2019s Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung said his team had been monitoring the US-China summit, and had maintained good communication with the US and other countries \u201cto ensure the stable deepening of Taiwan-US relations and safeguard Taiwan\u2019s interests\u201d.<\/p>\n
He said Taiwan had always been a \u201cguardian of peace and stability\u201d in the region and accused China of escalating risk with its \u201caggressive military actions and authoritarian oppression\u201d.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
US President Donald Trump has cautioned Taiwan against formally declaring independence from China. \u201cI\u2019m not looking to have somebody go independent,\u201d the US president told Fox News on Friday, at the end of his two-day summit with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Beijing. Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te has previously stated that Taiwan does not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-141199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141199"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141199\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}