(Nov 3): US President Donald Trump said China knows the risks of any attack on Taiwan but refrained from explicitly saying the US would intervene militarily on behalf of the democracy of 23 million people.
Speaking in an interview that aired on Sunday with CBS’ 60 Minutes, Trump said that Chinese leader Xi Jinping “understands what will happen” if the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) tried to invade. When pressed by host Norah O’Donnell on what that meant exactly, Trump said: “I don’t want to give away, I can’t give away my secrets.”
Trump added that Xi and other Chinese officials had said in meetings that they would never move against Taiwan while he was the US president “because they know the consequences”, according to a CBS transcript of the interview.
The comments should provide some measure of reassurance to officials in Taipei that the US will continue to support Taiwan militarily in the face of Chinese aggression. Trump has caused concern in Taiwan by saying it took the US’s chip industry and should do much more to defend itself against the PLA, which has increased its activity around the archipelago in recent years.
Beijing views Taiwan as its territory that must be brought under its control someday, by force if necessary. Taipei rejects those views, and President Lai Ching-te has made better preparing the democracy for any emergency a priority since taking office last year.
To navigate the tensions with China over the issue, the US has long followed a policy of “strategic ambiguity”, in which Washington reserves the right to use force but doesn’t explicitly say whether it may intervene.
See also: China complains to European Parliament over Taiwan VP’s speech
The US has said Taiwan didn’t come up in talks between Trump and Xi last week.
Wen-ti Sung, a non-resident fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Global China Hub, said that the topic wasn’t raised is “a sign of low political trust between the US and China”.
“Striking any ‘grand bargain’ including Taiwan will require extremely high degree of political trust between the US and China,” he said. “That simply does not exist, and it will be unlikely to develop under a transactionalist American administration.”
See also: Taiwan rushes to prevent China from cutting internet, phones
When asked about the trade deal reached with Xi in South Korea, the US president said that he had “always felt if we can make deals that are good, it’s better to get along with China than not”.
“I do think it’s important that China and the US get along, and we get along very well at the top,” he added.
When queried over whether he would allow Nvidia Corp to sell its top semiconductors to the Asian nation, Trump said: “No. No, we won’t do that.” The US “will let them deal with Nvidia but not in terms of the most advanced” chips.
Trump suggested before the talks with Xi that Nvida’s top Blackwell semiconductor would be part of the discussions but then later said the powerful AI accelerator was not discussed. Trump did say China would talk to Nvidia and other companies about chips.
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