The Taiwanese government appreciates this position. Returning from Beijing on Friday, Donald Trump warned Taiwan against any declaration of independence, following a particularly firm warning from Chinese President Xi Jinping on this sensitive issue of Sino-American relations.
The American president, in an excerpt aired on Fox News, stated, “I don’t want someone to declare independence, and, you know, then we’re supposed to go 15,000 kilometers to war.” He also said, “We don’t want someone to say, ‘Let’s declare independence because the United States supports us.'”
The issue of arms sales to Taiwan
Donald Trump also stated that he has not yet made a decision regarding a possible sale of arms to Taiwan, while calling for calm between Beijing and Taipei. “I want (Taiwan) to cool down. I want China to cool down,” he explained.
The issue of Taiwan dominated the discussions between the two leaders during this visit aimed at displaying a certain stability between the two leading global powers, without any major progress on trade or Iran issues. On Thursday, Xi Jinping warned his American counterpart: “The Taiwan issue is the most important in Sino-American relations. If it is handled properly, the relationship between the two countries can remain generally stable. If mishandled, the two countries will collide or even go to war.”
Taiwan, a Chinese province for Beijing
China considers Taiwan a province that it wants to reunify with the rest of its territory since the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949. Beijing claims to prefer a peaceful solution while maintaining the possibility of using force.
For Jacob Stokes, an expert at the Center for a New American Security, the main goal of this meeting was to preserve dialogue between Washington and Beijing. Bonnie Glaser, from the German Marshall Fund, believes that China will try to convince Donald Trump not to authorize new arms sales to Taiwan before Xi Jinping’s announced visit to Washington in the fall.
