Source TOI
WASHINGTON / BEIJING — Fresh off a high-stakes summit in Beijing with Chinese President Xi Jinping, U.S. President Donald Trump has upended decades of diplomatic protocol by signaling his readiness to speak directly with Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te.
The declaration, made to reporters at Joint Base Andrews on Wednesday, threatens to shatter a core tenet of Washington’s cross-Strait policy maintained since the U.S. officially shifted diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979.
When asked if he planned to contact the Taiwanese leader before finalizing a delayed $14 billion arms sale package, Trump was characteristically blunt. “I’ll speak to him. I speak to everybody,” Trump said, adding that he intended to work to “resolve the Taiwan issue.”
However, it was his framing of the self-governed democratic island that has triggered intense anxiety in Taipei and a fierce media blitz from Beijing. Trump explicitly referred to the island as a “problem” and openly described Washington’s legal commitments to arm Taiwan as leverage.
“It depends on China,” Trump told Fox News in an interview discussing the frozen weapons package. “It’s a very good negotiating chip for us, frankly. It’s a lot of weapons.”
Shaking the Foundations of the ‘Six Assurances’
Trump’s recent approach marks a radical departure from the highly calculated, nuanced vocabulary used by successive U.S. administrations. By openly acknowledging that he discussed Taiwan’s defensive arms sales directly with Xi Jinping during their May 14–15 summit, Trump has effectively breached the 1982 “Six Assurances” given to Taipei. A foundational pillar of U.S.-Taiwan relations, the assurances state that Washington will never consult Beijing on arms sales to the island.
Furthermore, Trump leaned heavily into economic grievances, reiterating his complaints that Taiwan “stole” America’s semiconductor business. He suggested the island’s security anxieties could be neutralized if its cutting-edge tech firms relocated.
“All of those chip companies, if they’re smart, they’re going to start heading to Arizona and the places where they’re building,” Trump said. “That’s going to solve your problems.”
He also explicitly questioned the strategic necessity of American military intervention in the event of a Chinese invasion, asking why the U.S. should “travel 9,500 miles to fight a war.”
Damage Control and Beijing’s Response
In the wake of the President’s remarks, U.S. officials scrambled to project stability. Speaking from Rome, Secretary of State Marco Rubio firmly asserted that Washington’s long-standing policy remains “unchanged.”
“We don’t want to see any forced or compelled change in the situation,” Rubio said, warning Beijing that utilizing military force against Taiwan would be a “terrible mistake.”
In Taipei, officials tried to put on a brave face. Taiwan’s National Security Council indicated that President Lai would be “happy to talk” with Trump. Diplomatic experts, however, urge caution. Analysts note that while Trump broke protocol as President-elect in 2016 by accepting a congratulatory call from then-President Tsai Ing-wen, doing so as a sitting president while openly labeling Taiwan a “bargaining chip” signals a transactional shift that Beijing is already eager to exploit.
Chinese state media has seized on the comments, broadcasting narratives that Trump’s warnings against Taiwanese independence have dealt a “severe blow” to Taipei’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
Whether a Trump-Lai call materializes in the coming weeks remains to be seen, but the mere threat has already transformed Taiwan from a shielded democratic partner into an active card on the U.S.-China geopolitical chessboard.
