Trump Says He’d be Very Unhappy if Xi Moves on Taiwan

U.S. President Donald Trump said China’s actions against Taiwan are “up to” Chinese President Xi Jinping, but he is “very unhappy” with changes to the status quo.

“He (Xi Jinping) thinks this is part of China, and it depends on what he wants to do,” Trump said in an interview with the New York Times published Thursday.

“But I’ve expressed to him that I would be very unhappy if he did that, and I don’t think he would do that. I hope he doesn’t do that.”

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Trump made the comments during an exchange on the following issues: Lessons Xi Jinping might learn from Trump’s bold military action in Venezuela.

Many analysts say the arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro undermines respect for international law and that Beijing could use Trump’s intervention to defend its territorial claims, such as Taiwan and islands in the East and South China Seas.

Beijing condemned Trump’s attack on Venezuela, saying it violated international law and threatened peace and security in Latin America. It called on the United States to release Maduro and his wife, who are being held in New York awaiting trial.

But the Republican president said he did not see similarities between the situations because Taiwan did not pose the same type of threat to China that he said Maduro’s government posed to the United States.

He also reiterated that Xi Jinping will not take action against Taiwan when his term ends in 2029.

“He may do it after we get a different president, but I don’t think he’s going to do it with me as president,” Trump said.

The Trump administration said in a statement strategy document Last year, it aimed to prevent conflict with China over Taiwan and the South China Sea by bolstering the military capabilities of the United States and its allies.

China regards democratically governed Taiwan as its own, and Beijing has never given up the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control. Taiwan rejects Beijing’s claims.

“The Taiwan issue is purely China’s internal affair, and how to resolve it is purely within the scope of China’s sovereignty,” said Liu Pengyu, spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington.

The United States has no formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan, but Washington is Taiwan’s most important international backer and is required by law to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself. This issue has plagued Sino-US relations for years.

Trump has largely avoided saying directly how he would respond to rising tensions on the island.

• Reuters With additional input and editing by Jim Pollard

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Jim Pollard

Jim Pollard is an Australian journalist based in Thailand since 1999. He worked for News Ltd newspapers in Sydney, Perth, London and Melbourne before traveling to South East Asia in the late 1990s. He served as a senior editor at The Nation for more than 17 years.