Trump Tells Taiwan and China to ‘Both Cool It’ After Beijing Summit
President Donald Trump urged both China and Taiwan to stand down following his two-day summit in Beijing, while pointedly refusing to confirm whether Washington would defend the island from a Chinese military attack, CNBC reported Friday.
Speaking to Fox News after leaving China, Trump delivered a message that left Taiwan’s security posture deliberately unclear. His remarks came after meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping that also covered trade and Iran.
Trump Sidesteps the Taiwan Question Directly
Trump said Xi put the Taiwan defense question to him directly during their talks. His answer was a studied non-answer. “I said I don’t talk about that,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on the return journey to Washington.
When pressed separately by journalists on whether the U.S. would intervene in a Chinese attack, Trump again declined. He said only one person knows the answer and identified himself as that person.
On a pending arms sale package for Taiwan, Trump offered little clarity. He said discussions covered the issue in depth but stopped short of any commitment. “I may do it, I may not do it,” he said.
A Longstanding Policy of Calculated Vagueness
Trump’s silence on Taiwan defense is consistent with decades of U.S. “strategic ambiguity,” a deliberate policy that leaves Beijing and Taipei guessing about American intentions. Washington has maintained its One China policy since the 1970s, recognising Beijing’s claim without endorsing it.
Xi, for his part, warned Trump early in the summit that mishandling the Taiwan question could produce conflict between the two powers. Chinese state media coverage of the summit made no mention of those exchanges, focusing instead on warmer moments between the two leaders.
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Military Backdrop Sharpens the Stakes
Analysts have flagged that America’s military posture in the Indo-Pacific has weakened since the U.S. began operations against Iran in late February. Aircraft carriers relocated to the Middle East and depleted munitions stocks have left a thinner footprint in the region.
Seth G. Jones of the Center for Strategic and International Studies warned this week that the Iran campaign has exposed gaps in U.S. defence manufacturing. Those gaps, he wrote, could prove far costlier if tested against China in the Pacific.
Trump appeared aware of the optics. He framed a hypothetical Taiwan war as a conflict 9,500 miles from American shores that he had no appetite to enter.
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