CaliToday (03/11/2025): In a "60 Minutes" interview, the president said China's leader "openly said" they would not move on the self-ruled island, citing "consequences," even as Beijing and the White House decline to confirm details.
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| President Donald Trump speaks to the media after boarding Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Friday, Oct. 31, 2025, enroute to Florida. AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)ASSOCIATED PRESS |
President Donald Trump has made the extraordinary claim that Chinese President Xi Jinping personally assured him Beijing would not take military action against Taiwan while the Republican leader is in office.
In an excerpt from an interview with CBS's "60 Minutes" that aired Sunday, Trump asserted that this guarantee was made explicitly by Xi and his government.
“He has openly said, and his people have openly said at meetings, ‘We would never do anything while President Trump is president,’ because they know the consequences,” Trump said.
The president's claim, taped Friday at his Mar-a-Lago resort, adds a new, deeply personal dimension to the high-stakes U.S.-China relationship. U.S. officials have long worried that China might use military force to act on its long-stated goal of unifying with the self-ruled island democracy, which Beijing claims as its own territory.
Interestingly, Trump noted that the highly contentious issue of Taiwan did not even come up during his most recent talks with Xi on Thursday in South Korea, which largely focused on easing U.S.-China trade tensions. Instead, Trump presented the assurance as a standing understanding he had already secured.
Trump Maintains "Ambiguity" on U.S. Response
For decades, U.S. policy toward Taiwan has been governed by the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act and a policy of "strategic ambiguity." The act does not require the U.S. to intervene militarily if China invades, but it does make it U.S. policy to ensure Taiwan has the resources to defend itself.
Successive Republican and Democratic administrations have deliberately avoided saying whether the U.S. would come to the island's aid, believing this ambiguity is the best deterrent.
When asked directly if he would order U.S. forces to defend Taiwan from a Chinese attack, President Trump demurred, adhering to the traditional policy but in his own characteristic style.
“You’ll find out if it happens," Trump said, referring to Xi. "And he understands the answer to that.”
Beijing and White House Do Not Confirm
While Trump's statement was definitive, both the Chinese government and his own White House did not provide immediate corroboration of the alleged assurance.
Liu Pengyu, a spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington, did not respond directly to a query about whether Xi had provided such a guarantee. Instead, he issued a firm statement reiterating China's long-held position.
“The Taiwan question is China’s internal affair, and it is the core of China’s core interests," the statement read. "How to resolve the Taiwan question is a matter for the Chinese people ourselves... China will never allow any person or force to separate Taiwan from China in any way.”
The White House also did not provide further details or clarify when or in what context President Xi or Chinese officials might have conveyed to Trump that military action on Taiwan was off-sh the-table for the duration of his presidency.
The "60 Minutes" appearance was Trump's first on the show since he settled a lawsuit this summer with CBS News over an interview the newsmagazine had conducted with former Vice President Kamala Harris. The remainder of the interview is scheduled to air later Sunday.
CaliToday.Net