Taiwan Policy Unchanged Ahead Of Trump-Xi Meeting, Senior US Officials Confirm

Ahead of the meeting between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, senior US officials said both leaders continue to discuss Taiwan and that America’s policy on the issue has not changed.

The officials made these comments while speaking to reporters before President Trump’s upcoming visit to China.

When asked if there was a potential shift in the stance of the United States towards Taiwan ahead of the meeting, the officials said, “There is an ongoing conversation between President Trump and General Secretary Xi Jinping about Taiwan. Certainly the last couple of times they’ve interacted, it has been a point of discussion. There’s been no change of US policy coming out of those. We don’t expect to see any changes in US policy going forward.”

The officials also briefly touched upon arms sales to Taiwan and added how the current Trump administration, in its first year, approved significantly more in arms sales to Taiwan than the entire four years of the previous administration.

The officials also referred to the recently passed defence budget of the island nation, noting that it was “disappointing” to see stuff left on the cutting room floor.

“Given our position on Taiwan’s defence budget, which they passed the supplemental last week, is that it was disappointing in that there was some stuff left on the cutting room floor that we believe still needs to be funded, and we would, we’d like to see the rest of the original proposed package funded,” they said.

This comes shortly after Focus Taiwan had reported last week that Taiwan had passed a supplementary budget bill to fund the purchase of separate packages of United States military equipment, with the combined amount of spending capped at NT$780 billion (US$24.8 billion).

Meanwhile, US lawmakers across party lines introduced a resolution expressing concern over China’s threats toward Taiwan, with a focus on maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait ahead of a planned summit later this month between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, according to a report by Taipei Times.

The US Senate Foreign Relations Committee stated that the resolution, spearheaded by Democratic Senators Jeanne Shaheen and Chris Coons, along with Republican Senator Pete Ricketts, reflected bipartisan concern over the growing threats China poses to US national security and economic prosperity during a crucial period in US-China relations. (ANI)

(Inputs from ANI)

Also Read: Trump Criticises Iran’s Reaction to Peace Plan, Calls It “Totally Unacceptable”