Taiwan President Lai Ching-te urged the Trump administration to continue selling arms to the self-governing island to ensure “regional peace and security”.Facebook post on Sunday.
US support is essential in pushing back against an increasingly aggressive Beijingregional military footprintsLai said.
“China has never given up its intention to seize Taiwan by force and continues to expand its military capabilities in an attempt to change the existing regional and border situation,” Lai said. US arms sales and security cooperation are “not only important but also important elements in maintaining regional peace and stability,” he added.
Lai’s post follows President Donald Trump’s comments about Air Force One and its interiorFox News interview Fridaythat he is delaying approving a $14 billion arms sale to Taiwan as a “negotiating chip” with Beijing. “I haven’t approved it yet. We’ll see what happens. I might do it, I might not,” Trump told Bret Baier of Fox News.
Trump spoke following a two-day summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing that otherwiseproduced a few important results. Ending arms sales to Taipei has been a long-standing demand of Beijing, which claims the island as Chinese territory and has asserted its claim toaccelerate military threatsof Taiwan.
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said Trump’s comments do not indicate a reversal of U.S.-Taiwan relations. “The president was clear about this – there is no change in US policy on Taiwan,” Greer saidhe told ABC News on Sunday.
Trump said he had discussed US arms sales to Taiwan “in detail” with Xi. That is obviousbreach of the 1982 promiseFormer President Ronald Reagan made the island that it would not consult with Beijing on such activities. Banning arms sales to Taiwan would also violate 1979Taiwan Relations Lawwhich authorizes the United States to “provide Taiwan with weapons of a defensive nature” to prevent possible Chinese aggression. The pledge is “the most important deterrent against efforts to undermine regional peace and stability,” Lai said.
Trump suggested that arms sales to Taiwan could encourage his government to formally declare independence – a potential source of conflict with Beijing.
“We’re not looking for someone to say, ‘Let’s go free, because the United States supports us,'” Trump said. Xi reiterated China’s long-standing warning that doing so risks conflict with Beijing in his meeting with Trump last week. “‘Taiwan independence’ and cross-strait peace cannot be resolved like fire and water,” Xi said.reading of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China.
Lai reiterated Taiwan’s position that it is already a “free and independent democratic nation” to which Beijing has no legal claim. And he warned of the possible consequences of an attempted Chinese invasion that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said was “imminent” likely.speech last year.
“Any action that undermines peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait is not only a clear challenge to international law and order but will also have a major impact on Indo-Pacific security, global supply chains, and the global economy,” Lai said.
