WASHINGTON—A major U.S. arms-sales package for Taiwan is in limbo following pressure from Chinese leader Xi Jinping and concerns among some in the Trump administration that greenlighting the weapons deal would derail President Trump’s coming visit to Beijing, according to U.S. officials.
In a phone call earlier this month with Trump, Xi urged caution on U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, the democratic, self-governing island that China claims as part of its territory. Trump wants to avoid antagonizing China ahead of his visit, set for the first week of April, the officials said.
Asked on Monday whether he planned to send more weapons to Taiwan, Trump said he had discussed the issue with Xi. “I’m talking to him about it. We had a good conversation, and we’ll make a determination pretty soon,” he told reporters.
“We have a very good relationship with President Xi,” Trump added
Beijing was already angered over the $11.1 billion in arms sales for Taiwan that the U.S. unveiled in December. U.S. officials had been discussing approving additional sales when Xi pressed Trump about the issue during the Feb. 4 phone call.
Trump’s advisers are vacillating on the decision, according to a U.S. official familiar with the arms package, who insisted that, while Xi was adamant, Trump wouldn’t be pushed around by China. Trump wants to preserve a trade truce with Xi, a second U.S. official said, so the timing of an arms-sale decision is being carefully considered behind the scenes, the person said.
Posted by FormerlyCinnamonCash
5 Comments
We must call the mango a cuck simp
This will make him feel insecure and he will have no choice but to approve the arms sale to make himself feel like a big boy again
Relevance: USA, China, Japan, and Taiwan national security concerns mixed with Trump’s tariffs. Internal angst within the pentagon about the direction Trump & others are taking the country regarding China
https://preview.redd.it/mbdihl01nakg1.jpeg?width=582&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2cf3fcabe55f1280a8fcfbe5b72ce6b6e83288d6
If Trump actually TACOs on this, I will personally handwrite an apology to Jake Sullivan for calling him the most spineless foreign policy person possible.
> *In response to a request for comment, a U.S. official said the arms sales are working their way through the administration’s internal process.*
> The U.S. Congress hasn’t officially been notified of new arms sales, but a congressional aide said it had been expected to include Patriot antimissile interceptors and other weapons.
> *U.S. support for Taiwan has long been a source of friction with Beijing, which has said it is prepared to seize the island by force if necessary. An official Chinese statement on the Trump-Xi call said that Taiwan “is the most important issue in China-U. S. relations” and that the U.S. “must handle the issue of arms sales to Taiwan with prudence.”*
> *Though President Joe Biden repeatedly said that the U.S. would defend Taiwan if China attacked, Trump has stuck to the longstanding policy of ambiguity about whether Washington would take military action to stop a Chinese invasion of the island. That stance is intended to deter Beijing, while also dissuading Taipei from declaring formal independence*
> *Washington remains Taiwan’s most important security backer. The 1979 Taiwan Relations Act obligated Washington to provide the island with arms for its own self-defense.*
> *Ahead of Trump’s anticipated April visit to Beijing, both sides are looking to start formal negotiations over “deliverables”—the tangible outcomes that will determine whether the summit is a substantive reset or merely high-stakes political theater.*
> *While a formal agenda has yet to be completed, the recent phone call between Trump and Xi is expected to trigger a round of high-level preparatory meetings between U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng.*
> *Beijing’s primary objective is stability through a “truce extension” that moves beyond the current one-year trade framework, according to people close to the Chinese government. Chinese negotiators are likely to push for a rollback of existing tariffs and a reprieve from the export controls on advanced artificial-intelligence chips that have throttled China’s tech sector, the people said.*
> *In exchange, the White House likely will demand large quantities of purchases by China, specifically targeting orders of soybeans, Boeing aircraft and American energy exports to slash the persistent bilateral trade deficit, according to industry executives who have recently spoken to administration officials.*
> *The people close to the Chinese government said Beijing was considering a reciprocal reopening of the Houston and Chengdu consulates, which were closed in 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic broke out in China and spread to the rest of the world. This move is being floated as a low-cost, high-visibility deliverable to signal a return to diplomatic normalcy, the people said.*