President Donald Trump said on Friday that he refused to answer directly to Chinese President Xi Jinping when asked if the United States would defend Taiwan if China attacked it.
“That question was asked of me today,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One as they flew back to the United States from a two-day summit in Beijing.
“I was asked that question today by President Xi. I said I am not talking about that,” said the president.
Trump’s decision not to respond is consistent with America’s “One China” policy that leaves the status of Taiwan, an island Beijing claims as its own, undefined.
The “strategic ambiguity” approach leaves open whether Washington will come to Taipei’s aid in the event of a Chinese attack.
Trump’s comments came in response to a reporter who asked whether the United States would defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese attack.
“I don’t want to say that,” Trump replied.
“There’s only one person who knows that. You know who? Me. I’m the only one,” he said before noting that Xi had asked him the same question before.
At the same time, his response to whether the pending arms sales package was earmarked for Taiwan raised questions.
“We discussed everything about the arms sale in a lot of detail actually, and I will be making a decision,” he said. “But, you know, I think the last thing we need right now is a war 9,500 miles away.”
Chinese media, which has been abuzz with Trump’s praise of the Chinese leader, has not said anything about Trump and his administration’s discussions on Taiwan, which analysts say may mean the Chinese side did not like what was said.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio told NBC News in an interview that the issue has been raised, but that “US policy on the Taiwan issue has not changed as of today.”
The Taiwan issue took center stage on the first day of the two-day summit after President Xi delivered a surprisingly tough message on Taiwan despite positive precedents about building stable relations and avoiding conflict.
At the start of the summit, Xi warned Trump that the US and China “will have confrontations and even conflicts” if the long-standing issue of Taiwan’s independence is not handled properly.
Xi told his American counterpart that it would put “all relations” between their two nations in “great danger” if the issue is not handled properly, China’s Xinhua newspaper reported on Thursday.
Xi told Trump that the “Taiwan question” is “a very important issue in China-US relations,” Xinhua reported.
During the summit, it was expected that Beijing would pressure Trump to change the language of the US in the US way of going from “does not support” Taiwan’s independence to “oppose” Taiwan’s independence.
The changed words could be a statement of Taiwan’s position, moving it in line with Beijing’s vision and sending a message about the US’s security commitment to the region.
Taiwan expert Bonnie Glaser, who this month co-authored an article in Foreign Affairs magazine, titled “Why China is Waiting: Beijing Is Playing the Long Game on Taiwan,” told CNBC in an interview that there are strong reasons for Xi to stop attacking Taiwan.
“The question is what are the costs to China, even if they can’t succeed in taking over the military,” Glaser said.
“The costs will be very high. There is no guarantee of success. And the costs of failure are very high – including threatening CCPs. [Chinese Communist Party] Legitimacy,” Glaser said. “A massive cleanup of the PLA [People’s Liberation Army] suggests that Xi is not willing to use force in the near future.”
“The readiness of the PLA is likely to be greatly affected by the cleanup,” he said.
