President Donald Trump on Wednesday revealed he plans to speak directly with Taiwanese leader Lai Ching-te, marking a departure from decades of U.S. precedent.
Such talks promise to antagonize China, where Trump recently traveled to meet with President Xi Jinping and discuss Taiwan. Beijing has long sought to assert communist control over the strategically placed island, which lies just off of China’s coast, after it broke away from the mainland in 1949 and attempted to assert itself as a sovereign democratic nation.
When pressed on whether he planned to speak with Lai about possibly selling the tiny island weapons, Trump said: “I’ll speak to him. I speak to everybody … we’ll work on that, the Taiwan problem.”
Beijing protested the move, while Taiwan’s foreign ministry said Thursday that it would be “happy to discuss these matters with President Trump.”
Trump touted his relationship with Xi following his meeting with the Chinese president last week. But his comments on speaking directly with Lai over whether to proceed with a major weapons sale worth up to $14 billion, the second time he has floated such talks in recent days, indicate he is looking to push the boundaries of what U.S. policy toward the island democracy should entail. Trump previously told reporters on Air Force One last week that he planned to speak with the person “that’s running Taiwan.”
Though it heavily relies on Taiwan to power the United States with advanced semiconductors, Washington has for decades maintained an ambiguous relationship with the island through its “One China” policy, officially recognizing the People’s Republic of China as the legitimate Chinese government. Direct communications between the president of Taiwan and the U.S. have been practically nonexistent since Washington and China established diplomatic relations in 1979.
Trump’s pending meeting with Lai appears to be a direct move to challenge the status quo and position the U.S. as a more direct partner to Taiwan, challenging China’s claims to the island.
ALLIES SAY XI HAS NOT SHOT AT CONVINCING TRUMP TO CHANGE TAIWAN POLICY
So far, Trump has delayed approval of the $14 billion arms sale to Taiwan, saying he views it as a “negotiating chip” for talks with China.
“The Taiwan question is the most important issue in China-U.S. relations,” Xi said during a closed-door meeting with Trump last week, according to a readout from the Chinese Foreign Ministry. “If it is handled properly, the bilateral relationship will enjoy overall stability. Otherwise, the two countries will have clashes and even conflicts, putting the entire relationship in great jeopardy.”