President Donald Trump said China knows the risks of any attack on Taiwan, but avoided explicitly saying whether The United States would intervene militarily in defense of the democracy of 23 million inhabitants.
In an interview broadcast on CBS’ 60 Minutes on Sunday, Trump assured that Chinese leader Xi Jinping “understands what will happen.” if the People’s Liberation Army tries to invade the island. Pressed by host Norah O’Donnell on what exactly that meant, Trump responded: “I don’t want to reveal, I can’t reveal my secrets.”
Subscribe to the newsletter here CincoCosas and get to know our WhatsApp channel
Trump added that Xi and other Chinese officials have told him in meetings that they would never move against Taiwan as long as he is president of the United States. “because they know the consequences,” according to the CBS transcript.
The statements should offer some relief to authorities in Taipei, indicating that the US will continue to support Taiwan militarily in the face of Chinese aggression. Trump had generated concern on the island by stating that “he took away the US chip industry.” and that it should do much more to defend itself from the People’s Liberation Army, which has increased its activity around the archipelago in recent years.
Beijing considers Taiwan part of its territory and maintains that it must one day come under its control, by force if necessary. Taipei rejects those claims, and President Lai Ching-te has made preparing the country for any emergency a priority since taking office last year.
To manage tensions with China, the US has maintained a policy of “strategic ambiguity,” which allows him to reserve the right to use force without explicitly saying whether he would intervene.
The US government stated that Taiwan was not a topic of conversation in meetings between Trump and Xi last week.
Wen-ti Sung, a non-resident fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Global China Hub, said the absence of the issue “is a sign of low political trust between the US and China.” He added that “reaching any ‘grand deal’ that includes Taiwan will require an extremely high level of political trust between both countries. That simply does not exist and is unlikely to develop under a transactional US administration.”
When asked about the trade agreement reached with Xi in South Korea, the president said that ““I have always felt that if we can get good deals, it is better to get along with China than not.”
“I think it’s important for China and the US to get along, and we get along very well at the highest levels,” he added.
When asked if he would allow Nvidia Corp. to sell its most advanced semiconductors to the Asian country, Trump responded: “No. We won’t.” He clarified that the US “will allow them to deal with Nvidia, but not in terms of the most advanced chips.”
Trump had suggested before the talks with Xi that Nvidia’s Blackwell semiconductor would be part of the dialogue, but subsequently said the powerful AI accelerator was not addressed. He explained that he and Xi discussed Nvidia’s general access to China and that the company will continue talks with Beijing, which has discouraged its local firms from using less advanced processors that Washington has already approved for sale.
