U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese language President Xi Jinping speak as they depart after a bilateral assembly at Gimhae Worldwide Airport, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Financial Cooperation (APEC) summit, in Busan, South Korea, October 30, 2025.
Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters
President Donald Trump says that Chinese language President Xi Jinping has given him assurances that Beijing would take no motion towards its long-stated objective of unifying Taiwan with mainland China whereas the Republican chief is in workplace.
Trump mentioned that the long-contentious problem of Taiwan didn’t come up in his talks with Xi on Thursday in South Korea that largely centered on U.S.-China commerce tensions. However the U.S. chief expressed certainty that China wouldn’t take motion on Taiwan, whereas he is in workplace.
“He has overtly mentioned, and his individuals have overtly mentioned at conferences, ‘We’d by no means do something whereas President Trump is president,’ as a result of they know the implications,” Trump mentioned in an excerpt of an interview with the CBS’ program “60 Minutes” that may air on Sunday.
U.S. officers have lengthy been involved about the potential of China utilizing navy power towards Taiwan, the self-ruled island democracy claimed by Beijing as a part of its territory.
The 1979 Taiwan Relations Act, which has ruled U.S. relations with the island, doesn’t require the U.S. to step in militarily if China invades however makes it American coverage to make sure Taiwan has the sources to defend itself and to forestall any unilateral change of standing by Beijing.
Requested if he would order U.S. forces to defend Taiwan if China attacked, Trump demurred. America, each Republican and Democratic administrations, have maintained a coverage of “strategic ambiguity” on Taiwan — making an attempt to not tip their palms on whether or not the U.S. would come to the island’s assist in such a state of affairs.
“You will discover out if it occurs, and he understands the reply to that,” Trump mentioned of Xi.
Liu Pengyu, spokesman for the Chinese language embassy in Washington, didn’t reply on to a question about whether or not Trump has obtained any assurances from Xi or Chinese language officers about Taiwan. He insisted in an announcement that China “won’t ever enable any individual or power to separate Taiwan from China in any means.”
“The Taiwan query is China’s inner affair, and it’s the core of China’s core pursuits. Easy methods to resolve the Taiwan query is a matter for the Chinese language individuals ourselves, and solely the Chinese language individuals can resolve it,” the assertion added.
The White Home additionally didn’t present additional particulars about when Xi or Chinese language officers have conveyed to Trump that navy motion on Taiwan was off-the-table throughout the Republican’s presidency.
The “60 Minutes” interview was taped on Friday at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. It marked Trump’s first look on the present since he settled a lawsuit this summer season with CBS Information over the newsmagazine’s interview with Kamala Harris.
The remainder of the interview is scheduled to air later Sunday.