U.S. President Donald Trump stated that Chinese President Xi Jinping assured him that Beijing would not take any action against Taiwan as long as he remains in office.
Trump said that the contentious issue of Taiwan was not raised during his talks with Xi on Thursday in South Korea, which focused primarily on U.S.-China trade tensions.
“He said it openly, and his people said it openly at the meetings, ‘We will never do anything while Trump is president,’ because they understand the consequences,” Trump said in an excerpt from a CBS interview on Sunday.
U.S. officials have been concerned about the possibility of China using force against Taiwan, the self-governing island democracy claimed by Beijing as part of its territory.
The Taiwan Relations Act of 1979 does not require direct U.S. military intervention but aims to ensure that the island has the resources to defend itself and to prevent unilateral changes to its status by Beijing.
When asked whether he would order U.S. forces to defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese attack, Trump hesitated to answer, reflecting the longstanding U.S. policy of “strategic ambiguity” toward the island.
