The leaders of the world’s two superpowers, President Donald Trump and Xi Jinping, are set to meet in April. China and others hope to use the long-awaited summit as leverage and are calling on the United States to cancel arms sales to Taiwan. Trump should stick to his guns and hold firm to U.S. commitments to the embattled island nation.
In a Feb. 4 phone call, Xi reportedly told Trump that “the Taiwan question is the most important issue in China-U.S. relations.” The Chinese leader warned, “The U.S. must handle arms sales to Taiwan with caution.” Xi menacingly called for Trump to be “prudent” and said that “China will never allow Taiwan to be separated,” according to Chinese state media readouts of the conversation.
The Chinese Communist Party has coveted Taiwan since it seized power in 1949. This is far from the first time that China has relied on threats, implied or otherwise, to get its way with Taiwan.
In December, the U.S. approved an $11 billion arms sale to Taiwan. China responded by conducting massive live-fire drills, simulating a blockade of the country’s major ports.
On Feb. 16, a reporter aboard Air Force One, noting Xi’s threats, asked if Trump was still prepared to send “more weapons to Taiwan?” The president said that he had a “good conversation” with the CCP leader, was “talking” with Xi about it, and affirmed “we’ll make a determination pretty soon.”
Some, Xi and his CCP among them, are clearly hoping Trump will nix arms sales to Taiwan in an attempt to curry favor with Beijing ahead of the April summit. It is possible that Xi will use the promise of the summit to pressure the U.S. to renege on weapons shipments.
But as the late British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher once told President George H.W. Bush: Now is not the time to go wobbly. Washington shouldn’t fall into the trap of viewing arms sales to Taiwan as a bargaining chip. That would signal weakness and whet Xi’s appetite to conquer Taiwan. It would be better to go on offense and tell Xi that more weapons will be sold to Taiwan if China again conducts threatening war games around its shores.
Some news outlets and commentators have worried that Trump is “retreating” from protecting Taiwan. They point to Trump’s desire for a meeting, as well as the recent National Defense Strategy, which they claim deprioritized China as a threat. But this is a profound misreading.
Washington should welcome the opportunity to meet Beijing and resolve long-standing disputes and disagreements. But it shouldn’t do so at Taiwan’s expense.
To be sure, there are reasons to proceed cautiously. The balance of power in the Indo-Pacific currently favors China. For years, while the U.S. armed services were going woke, the CCP prepared for war: building underground hospitals, massive command centers, air shelters, and landing barges, and engaging in the largest military buildup in modern history.
The U.S. has some catching up to do. Thankfully, the Trump administration has prioritized rebuilding our defense industrial base, ensuring that our warfighters have the tools and the morale to protect U.S. interests at home and abroad. Yet with Xi calling for his People’s Liberation Army to be ready to invade Taiwan next year, we are now in the window of maximum danger.
But prudence and pragmatism also require the U.S. to hold on to the cards that it has, including the ability to arm and equip Taiwan. Now is the time to do so. Unlike Ukraine, Taiwan is an island; should China invade, any attempts to resupply the country would be difficult, if not impossible.
DEMOCRATS ARE OVERREACHING ON IMMIGRATION
But the U.S. can’t defend Taiwan without Taiwan doing much to defend itself. For weeks, its KMT party has withheld approval of U.S. arms sales in its legislature. Taiwan must do more and with greater urgency to turn itself into a “porcupine,” investing in asymmetric defense and raising the costs of any CCP attack.
Washington must hold firm and not allow Beijing to dictate or influence either arms sales or policies toward Taiwan. Doing otherwise could provide an opening for the CCP. And it could spell disaster, for both Taiwan and the world.