As President Donald Trump meets with Chinese leader Xi Jinping this week, Taiwan will be nervously monitoring from afar to ascertain whether its political status and critical arms purchases come up in discussions between the two leaders.
While Taiwanese officials have publicly expressed confidence in the strength of their partnership with the US, some current and former US officials and analysts have questioned if the transactional Trump could offer Xi concessions on Taiwan, especially if he seeks the Chinese leader’s help with negotiating an end to the Iran war.
Under the longstanding “One China” policy, the US acknowledges China’s position that Taiwan is part of China but has never officially recognized the Communist Party’s claim to the self-governing island. Washington maintains robust unofficial relations with Taiwan and has sold billions of dollars in advanced weapons to the island, with bipartisan approval, but has remained intentionally ambiguous on whether it would intervene militarily in the event of a Chinese attack.
Although administration officials have said that the US Taiwan policy remains unchanged, there are concerns that Trump might undermine the democratic island of more than 23 million through deeds or words – wittingly or not.
