President Donald Trump maintained a policy of “strategic ambiguity” regarding whether the U.S. would defend Taiwan if attacked by China, stating he refused to answer Chinese President Xi Jinping directly on the matter. Trump urged both Taiwan and China to “cool it,” emphasizing that the U.S. is not looking for a distant war and is weighing potential arms sales to Taiwan. Xi had warned that mishandling the Taiwan issue could lead to “clashes and even conflicts” between the two global powers.
President Donald Trump has called for a measured approach between China and Taiwan, stating they "ought to both cool it" following his Beijing summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping. In a Fox News interview that aired Friday afternoon, Trump affirmed that the long-standing U.S. policy on Taiwan remains unaltered after his two-day discussions with Xi.
Taiwanese citizens, Trump suggested, should feel "neutral" about his visit. However, he also voiced some reservations about the U.S. potentially intervening in Taiwan's defense if it faces an attack, framing Taipei's pursuit of independence from China as a pivotal 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 remarked. "I'm not looking for that. I want them to cool down, I want China to cool down."
He further noted that he had not yet approved a prospective large arms sale to Taiwan, adding, "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 emphasized.
"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 reiterated.
Earlier, Trump disclosed that he declined to directly answer Xi's query about whether the U.S. would defend Taiwan against a Chinese assault.
"That question was asked to me today," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One as they returned to the United States from a two-day summit in Beijing.
"That question was asked to me today by President Xi. I said I don't talk about that," Trump confirmed.
Trump's decision to avoid a direct answer aligns with the long-standing U.S. "One China" policy, which intentionally leaves the status of Taiwan, an island Beijing claims as its own, diplomatically ambiguous. This "strategic ambiguity" policy deliberately refrains from explicitly stating whether Washington would assist Taipei in the event of a Chinese attack.
However, recent events, particularly the U.S. military engagement against Iran since late February, have stirred concerns among analysts. They suggest that China might be in a stronger position to act against Taiwan due to the redeployment of U.S. Navy carriers from the Indo-Pacific to the Middle East and the depletion of American munitions from the Iran conflict.
Seth G. Jones, president of the Defense and Security Department at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, highlighted these vulnerabilities. "The Iran war has once again highlighted deficiencies in the U.S. defense industrial base. If the United States does not move quickly this time, it may have to learn this lesson — the hard way — against China in the Indo-Pacific," Jones warned in a recent analysis.
Trump's comments on Friday were a response to a reporter's direct inquiry about defending Taiwan from a Chinese attack. "I don't want to say that," Trump replied. "There's only one person that knows that. You know who it is? Me. I'm the only person," he asserted, before mentioning Xi's identical question earlier.
He also offered a vague response regarding a pending arms sales package for Taiwan. "We discussed the whole thing with the arms sales in great detail actually, and I'll be making a decision," he stated. "But, you know, I think the last thing we need right now is a war that's 9,500 miles away."
Chinese state media, which had lauded Trump's praise for Xi, notably omitted any mention of discussions about Taiwan, leading analysts to infer Chinese dissatisfaction with the dialogue on the issue. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in an interview with NBC News, confirmed the issue was raised but affirmed that "U.S. policy on the issue of Taiwan is unchanged as of today."
Taiwan emerged as a central theme on the first day of the summit when Xi delivered a stark warning to Trump. Xi cautioned that the U.S. and China "will have clashes and even conflicts" if the enduring issue of Taiwan's independence is mishandled. According to China's state news outlet Xinhua, Xi explicitly told Trump that mishandling the "Taiwan question" could jeopardize "the entire relationship" between the two nations, emphasizing it as "the most important issue in China-U.S. relations."
Leading up to the summit, there was speculation that Beijing would pressure Trump to alter the U.S.' official policy on Taiwan's status from "does not support" independence to "opposes" independence. Such a linguistic shift would align U.S. policy more closely with Beijing's stance and redefine U.S. security commitments in the region.
Bonnie Glaser, managing director of the Indo-Pacific program with the German Marshall Fund and co-author of a relevant article in Foreign Affairs, suggested strong deterrents against a Chinese attack on Taiwan. "The question is what would be the likely costs to China, even if they might be able to succeed in a military takeover," Glaser stated. "The costs would be prohibitive. There is no certainty of success. And the costs of failure are very high — including threatening the CCP's [Chinese Communist Party] legitimacy." She also pointed to the massive purges within the PLA [People's Liberation Army] as an indicator that "Xi is not prepared to use force in the near future," suggesting that "The PLA's readiness has likely been significantly affected by the purges."
