After a two-day summit with Xi Jinping, Donald Trump has not yet decided whether to approve the sale of US weapons to Taipei worth 14 billion dollars. The Chinese leader warned him that Taiwan was a red line. That a mismanagement of the island issue could put both countries in “an extremely dangerous situation.”
Only a few hours after being in Beijing, on his return to Washington with Air Force One, and asked by the media about what he was going to do with the arms sale to the Taiwanese government that had already been approved by the administration, he replied that he had not yet decided on it. “I will make a decision,” he said.
The US president stated that he had talked at length with Xi about Taiwan and they had addressed the arms sale “in great detail.” The conversation itself already marks a difference in the American tradition, which until now had never addressed the issue of arms sales with the Chinese authorities.
In that conversation, the Chinese president told Trump that he opposed any declaration of “independence” by the island and reiterated his warning made at the very beginning of the summit: Taiwan is the most important issue for China and any unfortunate decision by Washington could trigger a conflict. “I think everything will be fine,” Trump explained to reporters. “He does not want a war.”
The future of the island was the focus of a summit that Trump arrived at with the express demand that China no longer sell arms to Iran and help open the Strait of Hormuz. The US president and the White House indicated that China had expressed its agreement on the Iran issue. However, so far no statement has been made public from Beijing on this aspect, nor on another risky claim by the White House occupant: that China agrees on the denuclearization of Iran.
Trump traveled to Beijing with an important business delegation that included entrepreneurs from the technology and financial sectors to whom Xi Jinping promised a more open and less regulated market.
