President Donald Trump has yet to make a determination on the delayed American arms sale to Taiwan, an issue that Chinese President Xi Jinping raised during their closed-door talks.Trump left Beijing on Friday following the two-day summit, and he spoke with reporters for roughly a half-hour en route to Air Force One’s refueling stop in Alaska.Trump confirmed that he and Xi discussed Taiwan a lot, reiterating that Xi is firmly against Taiwanese independence and that the two leaders had a “very good understanding” of the issue.
The president said that he didn’t “think” that Taiwan would drag the U.S. into “conflict” with China.
“[Xi] doesn’t want to see a war,” he stated. “He doesn’t want to see a movement for independence. He says, ‘Look, you know, we’ve had it for thousands of years, and then had a certain period of time and left, and we were going to get it back, and the Korean War and a lot of things happened with all this.'”
“Taiwan, he feels very strongly. I made no commitment,” Trump continued, adding that he would “make a determination” soon but not before speaking to Taiwanese President William Lai.
The United States has sold weapons to Taiwan for decades, and a bipartisan group of senators had pressured Trump to greenlight a new arms sale to Taiwan before leaving for Beijing. The U.S. approved a transfer last year, but the shipment has been delayed for months.
