Why Taiwan became the defining issue in the Trump-Xi talks

BEIJING — U.S. President Donald Trump has kept up an uneasy silence about Taiwan following his meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping this week, despite the U.S.’ announcement in December of a record $11 billion in arms sales to the island against Beijing’s wishes.

Trump had said the Taiwan arms sales would be on the agenda for his talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping which ended on Friday.

But after the two leaders’ first day of meetings on Thursday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told NBC News the topic “did not feature primarily in today’s discussion.”

The initial White House readout also did not mention Taiwan – home to manufacturers of some of the world’s most advanced semiconductors – although Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC he expected Trump would say more on Taiwan in coming days.

The silence persisted — more than 24 hours after China published its official readout with a stark warning from Xi that mishandling Taiwan would put the U.S.-China relationship in “great jeopardy.”

“This is a pretty direct and strong comment by President Xi,” Wendy Cutler, former acting deputy U.S. trade representative, said Friday on CNBC’s “The China Connection.”

“The way I interpret it too is that he really tied economic stability to developments with respect to Taiwan,” she said.

Beijing’s readout of the closing Trump-Xi meeting Friday morning emphasized the benefits of cooperation and did not mention Taiwan.

Trump said that China and Taiwan “ought to both cool it”.

In an interview with Fox News that aired Friday afternoon, Trump insisted that long-standing U.S. policy on Taiwan remains unchanged after his two days of meetings with Xi.

The people of Taiwan should feel “neutral” about his visit, Trump said.

But he also appeared to express some opposition to the prospect of the U.S. leaping to Taiwan’s defense if it is attacked, while framing Taipei’s decision to pursue independence from China as the deciding factor.

“I will say this: I’m not looking to have somebody go independent, and you know, we’re supposed to travel 9,500 miles to fight a war,” Trump said. “I’m not looking for that. I want them to cool down, I want China to cool down.”

He added that he has yet to approve another potential large sale of weapons to Taiwan: “I may do it, I may not do it.”

“We’re not looking to have somebody say ‘Let’s go independent because the United States is backing us,'” Trump said.

“Taiwan would be very smart to cool it a little bit. China would be very smart to cool it a little bit. They ought to both cool it,” he said.

Earlier, Trump said he refused to directly answer Xi when asked if the U.S. would defend Taiwan against a Chinese attack.

Trump also said Taiwan was not part of the discussion when he met with Xi in South Korea last fall.

Trump’s decision not to answer is in line with the U.S.′ long-standing “One China” policy, which leaves the status of Taiwan, an island that Beijing claims as its own, undefined.

The approach of “strategic ambiguity” leaves open whether Washington would come to Taipei’s aid in the event of a Chinese attack.

As for arms sales, the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act adds that the U.S. “will make available to Taiwan such defense articles and defense services” as may be necessary to “enable Taiwan to maintain sufficient self-defense capabilities.”

Taiwan, meanwhile, said comments by Trump and Rubio signal that U.S. policy toward the island remains unchanged.

“It is a clear fact that [Taiwanese] President Lai Ching-te has consistently advocated for continuing to contribute to regional peace and stability and remaining committed to maintaining the status quo across the Taiwan Strait,” Taiwan’s presidential spokesperson Karen Kuo said in a statement on Saturday.

“China’s escalating military threat is the sole destabilizing factor within the Indo-Pacific region, including the Taiwan Strait,” Kuo added.

“If you look at the readouts of all Trump-Xi meetings before this [week], just the last several that have occurred since maybe April of last year, you see the U.S. readouts have a much smaller portion focused on Taiwan,” Rush Doshi, director of the China strategy initiative, Council on Foreign Relations, said Friday on CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia.”

“There’s really no sign that there’s been a significant change in [the U.S.] Taiwan policy, at least not yet from the summit,” Doshi said.

Taiwan is a democratically self-ruled island that Beijing claims is part of its territory. Since 1979, the U.S. has recognized Beijing and not Taipei, and acknowledges the Chinese position that there is one China and Taiwan is part of China. The U.S. maintains an unofficial relationship with the island.

– CNBC’s Eunice Yoon, Dan Mangan, Kevin Breuninger and Azhar Sukri contributed to this story.