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Taiwan remained a sticking point during this week’s high-level talks between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi in Beijing, a trip marked by both public-facing cordiality and closed-door tensions.
“U.S. policy on the issue of Taiwan is unchanged as of today and as of the meeting that we had here today. It was raised,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio told NBC News. “They always raise it on their side. We always make clear our position and we move on to the other topics.”
On the question of whether China wants to “invade” Taiwan, Rubio told the outlet, “Well, I think China’s preference is probably to have Taiwan willingly, voluntarily join them. In a perfect world what they would want is some vote or referendum in Taiwan that agrees to fold in. I think that’s what they would prefer.”
The Chinese stance on Taiwan – that the U.S. should not interfere – was top of mind for China but was notably absent from the White House readout of President Trump’s Beijing talks, despite a longstanding U.S. history of selling arms to Taiwan.
“President Xi stressed that the Taiwan question is the most important issue in China-U.S. relations,” a press release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (People’s Republic of China) stated.
It continued, “If it is handled properly, the bilateral relationship will enjoy overall stability. Otherwise, the two countries will have clashes and even conflicts, putting the entire relationship in great jeopardy. ‘Taiwan independence’ and cross-Strait peace are as irreconcilable as fire and water. Safeguarding peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait is the biggest common denominator between China and the U.S. The U.S. side must exercise extra caution in handling the Taiwan question.”
Publicly, President Xi and President Trump both expressed a willingness to engage in friendly bilateral relations during their remarks this week. President Trump praised the relationship between China and the U.S. as one of “mutual esteem,” and even went so far as to invite President Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, to the White House in September.
However, this outward friendliness was juxtaposed with Xi’s calm but iron-fisted warnings about U.S. aspirations. As reported by RSBN, Xi heavily suggested that China is now a superpower on a path to conflict with the United States, noting that both nations should be careful not to fall into a “Thucydides Trap.”
This political theory, rooted in Greek history, postulates that when a rising power begins to eclipse an established one, the possibility of war is extremely high.
