President Donald Trump’s suggestion that US arms sales to Taiwan could be a bargaining chip with China has set off alarms across the world, but in Taipei, people told AFP the situation was beyond their control.

A week on from Trump’s remarks to Fox News and aboard Air Force One, feverish speculation bubbled over whether decades of US policy on the democratic island has been upended.

While the United States switched official diplomatic relations from Taipei to Beijing nearly 50 years ago, Washington is Taipei’s most important security backer.

Though Taiwanese government officials have been anxiously waiting for Trump’s decision on the latest arms package, people on the streets of Taipei were calm.

Nicole Lee, a 46-year-old nurse, said she didn’t put much stock in Taiwan’s military hardware in a war against China, which claims Taiwan is part of its territory and has threatened to use force to seize it.

“Even if they give us weapons, if we really had to use force against (China), I don’t think there would be much we could do,” she said.

Delivery driver Ben Wu, 41, echoed those comments, likening US arms sales to Taiwan to a “protection fee” and noting that even with the “best weapons it would still be very hard to win” against China.

Taiwan has spent many billions of dollars buying fighter jets, high-tech missiles and drones from the United States to bolster its defences against a potential attack from China.

Trump ‘totally untrustworthy’

Still, Taipei has been at pains to remind Trump of US commitments under the Taiwan Relations Act, which was passed by the US Congress in 1979 and requires the United States to provide weapons to Taiwan.

US officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, have insisted nothing about US policy on Taiwan has changed.

Cynthia Kuo, a 29-year-old elementary school teacher, said Trump was the “kind of person who just says whatever pops into his head.”

“So I feel like whatever decisions he makes, he only makes them if he thinks they’re good for the United States,” she said.

“He’s not going to take other countries into account.”

A 78-year-old retiree, who spoke on condition that her name not be used, said the one thing that was certain is that Trump can’t be relied upon.

“He’s totally untrustworthy,” the woman said. “I often feel that Trump is a hooligan in international politics.”

In any case, Washington’s conclusion on the weapons and Beijing’s next steps on Taiwan will be decided far from Tapei.

“I’m not that worried,” 22-year-old university student Matt told AFP. “Whether we worry or not doesn’t really change anything.”

By Joy Chiang

Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te said Tuesday the democratic island has the “right to engage with the world”, after he returned from a trip to Africa that Taipei has accused Beijing of trying to derail.

Taiwan said China applied “intense pressure” to Seychelles, Mauritius and Madagascar to revoke overflight permits for Lai’s original trip to Eswatini — Taipei’s only ally in Africa — which had been scheduled for April 22-26.

China claims Taiwan is part of its territory and opposes the self-governed island’s participation in international organisations and exchanges with other countries.

“Taiwanese people are people of the world; Taiwanese people have the right to engage with the world,” Lai told reporters at Taipei’s international airport after his flight home on the Eswatini king’s plane.

Lai flew on the king’s aircraft to Eswatini on Saturday.

“We will not shrink back because of suppression,” Lai said, flanked by Eswatini Deputy Prime Minister Thulisile Dladla, who had flown to Taiwan with him and his delegation.

“Mutual visits between heads of state should be the most ordinary thing, just like when we go out to visit friends, and are a basic right of every country.”

The United States slammed China’s “intimidation campaign” after Lai’s trip was delayed. The remarks were rejected by China’s foreign minister as “baseless accusations”.

On Saturday, China’s foreign ministry accused Lai of making a “stowaway-style escape farce” that made him “an international laughing stock”.

‘Sanctions’

Eswatini, a small enclave kingdom formerly known as Swaziland, is one of 12 countries that still recognise Taiwan. China has persuaded other nations to break diplomatic ties with the self-ruled island.

Lai had planned to visit Eswatini from April 22 to 26 for the 40th anniversary of King Mswati III’s accession and his 58th birthday.

Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung went instead after Lai’s trip was postponed.

A Taiwanese security official, who requested anonymity in order to speak to the media, said previously that China had threatened “to revoke substantial debt relief granted to (Seychelles, Mauritius and Madagascar), halt financing and impose further economic sanctions”.

On May 1, China extended a zero-tariff policy to all African countries except Eswatini under a policy announced last year.

Lai’s last official overseas trip was in November 2024, when he visited Taiwan’s Pacific allies and transited through the US territory of Guam.

Trump’s administration reportedly denied Lai permission to transit through New York last year as part of an official trip to Latin America. Taiwan’s foreign ministry denied that he was blocked.

Chinese tech giant Huawei said on Monday it had developed a new way of making semiconductors that could get around its US-enforced lack of access to the most advanced chipmaking equipment.

Huawei has been at the centre of a geopolitical standoff in recent years after Washington warned its equipment could be used by the Chinese government for espionage, an allegation the firm denies.

Sanctions since 2019 have cut Huawei’s access to components and technologies made by the United States and some of its allies — including the lithography machines used to make the world’s most advanced chips.

However, the head of Huawei’s semiconductor division He Tingbo said on Monday that the company will be able to produce chips equivalent to next-generation 1.4-nanometre (1.4nm) ones by 2031.

Taiwan’s TSMC, the industry leader, has projected it will be able to do the same by 2028.

Cutting-edge chips that can train and power artificial intelligence systems are a crucial and highly sensitive element of the technology rivalry between the United States and China.

The computing power of chips has increased dramatically over the decades as makers cram them with more microscopic electronic components.

Huawei’s announcement suggests it might have sidestepped the need for extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) machines, which have been considered crucial for mass manufacturing chips of 5nm or under.

“Over the past six years, I have often been asked… how did you survive and come back on top?” He said in a presentation to the International Symposium on Circuits and Systems (ISCAS) in Shanghai.

She said the new technique came about through a shift in how chipmaking has been conceptualised historically.

“Moore’s Law”, a principle developed by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore, states that the number of transistors — devices regulating the flow of electricity — on a chip doubles every two years.

A higher density of transistors results in a smaller chip or one the same size with faster processing power.

He proposed on Monday “the Tau Scaling Law”, or “Her’s Law”, by which instead of optimising for space, designers optimise for the time taken for the various elements making up a chip to communicate.

This overcomes a key challenge facing Moore’s Law that Intel sums up as: “You can make something smaller and smaller and smaller… until you can’t”.

US sanctions have meant that “these challenges arrived earlier and are tougher” for Huawei, He said.

“Our solution is feasible and affordable. The performance of the new chip can fully compete with that of the other path,” she said.

Huawei’s next iteration of its Kirin chip, set to launch in the autumn, will be the first to fully adopt an architecture called “LogicFolding” based on the new principle, the company said.

‘No way out’

“Over the past six years, there was a period when I felt quite frustrated, as if there was really no way out,” He told reporters after the ISCAS presentation.

But she said she had been inspired by “a masterpiece of engineering”, southwestern China’s Dujiangyan irrigation system that was originally constructed around 256 BC.

She said she realised she was just facing problems others would come across 10 years later.

“I can confidently say in the coming 10 years our solutions for mobile computing and AI computing will be competitive,” He told reporters.

But she acknowledged that obstacles remained in scaling up — not least the necessity for new design tools and the challenges of overheating.

The Tau Scaling Law “underscores the company’s ambition to lead rather than follow in the global chip race”, said George Chen, Partner and Chair of Digital Practice at The Asia Group.

“Even without a new product launch today, Huawei’s intent is clear — and its trajectory will likely heighten US concerns.”

China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Beijing would play a “greater role” in ending hostilities in the Middle East during talks with his Iranian counterpart on Wednesday, a week before US President Donald Trump is due to meet Xi Jinping.

China is a key customer for Iranian oil, defying sanctions imposed by the United States, and is directly affected by the blockage of the Strait of Hormuz bordered by Iran.

Beijing has quietly engaged in efforts to resolve the weekslong crisis and its diplomacy is credited with playing an important role in the fragile ceasefire agreed between Washington and Tehran.

China “will work harder to ease tensions and end the fighting, continue to support the launch of peace talks, and play a greater role in restoring peace and tranquility to the Middle East”, Wang told Iran’s Abbas Araghchi in Beijing.

“China considers that a complete cessation of fighting must be achieved without delay, that it is even more unacceptable to restart hostilities, and that continuing to negotiate remains essential,” Wang said, according to a statement from his ministry after the talks.

Manufacturing giant China has been comparatively sheltered from fuel shortages thanks to oil reserves and renewable energy, but costs of oil-derived materials like plastic and fabric have risen significantly.

More than half of the crude imported by sea to China comes from the Middle East and mainly transits through the Hormuz strait, according to maritime analytics firm Kpler.

Analysts have warned the war’s impact on China will be felt for months.

During Wednesday’s talks Wang said China hopes “the parties concerned will respond as quickly as possible to the urgent call of the international community” for a resumption of normal and safe maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.

Trump trip looms

The Wang-Araghchi talks came as Trump said the US would pause escorting commercial ships through the Hormuz Strait — which drew Iranian attacks — barely a day after it began doing so.

Trump cited a desire to reach a peace deal with Iran.

Washington demands tight controls on Tehran’s nuclear programme, which Iran has refused to agree to and has led to talks crumbling.

“On the nuclear issue, China welcomes Iran’s commitment not to develop nuclear weapons, while considering that Iran has the legitimate right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy,” Wang said.

The US leader is expected to meet Chinese President Xi in Beijing on a visit the White House said will take place May 14-15.

Beijing has not confirmed those dates.

A foreign ministry spokesman again refused to share details when asked about Trump’s visit at a regular news conference on Wednesday.

Trump would join rulers from the Gulf, Europe and Southeast Asia that have recently landed face time with Xi, who has sought to position China as a stable partner in the face of the US- and Israeli-led conflict.

Trump’s visit would also come more than a year after his sweeping global tariffs wreaked havoc on the supply chain, causing chaos in China’s manufacturing sector.

By Mary Yang with Tommy Wang in Hong Kong

Vacuum cleaners and vapes could get more expensive if the Iran war drags on for much longer, Chinese factory owners and traders warn, as the world’s manufacturing hub reels from “crazy” costs.

Weeks of US-Israeli strikes on Iran and the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz have choked Asia’s oil supply, stymieing the production of plastic — derived from oil — across the region.

Manufacturing giant China has been comparatively sheltered from fuel shortages thanks to oil reserves and renewable energy, but local factories are picking up a ballooning raw materials bill.

“Basically, we’ve been losing money on all our orders,” said Bryant Chen, a manager at vacuum cleaner factory RIMOO in southern Guangdong province’s Foshan.

The price of plastic has risen roughly 50 percent since before the Iran war, Chen told AFP as workers behind him fastened suction tubes to metal tanks.

“The costs of the products that we are making are being very greatly affected,” the 42-year-old said, listing plastic, copper for the vacuum’s motor and raw materials in its power cords.

“Typically at this time we’d be entering peak season, but compared to the same period previously, shipment and production data aren’t very optimistic.”

Two hours away, plastic traders in storage hub Zhangmutou said price fluctuations were the worst they’ve seen in decades.

“It has never been this crazy,” said Li Dong, 46, who entered the industry two decades ago.

The plastic, rice-sized pellets he buys for local phone cases and EV battery factories jumped wildly in March, triggering days of panic that jammed the small town’s roads as factories rushed to stock up.

‘Mutual state of decline’

Exporters in Zhangmutou showed AFP a vast range of products their pellets would become, including drones and badminton birdies.

One trader sifted through pink, green and purple beads that she said would be moulded into e-cigarette casings sold in the Middle East.

The Iran war has hit plastic production even harder than bottlenecks caused by the Covid pandemic, when ships could not come and go from China, Li said.

Some sellers cashed in on the plastic panic, he added, fighting to take advantage of surging costs.

Li said the price of plastic had dropped around 10 to 20 percent from its height, but he cautioned against further oil hold-ups.

“The factories we supply to will suffer the most because their direct costs will rise,” he said.

For exporters, the Middle East crisis has added to the hangover still lingering from Donald Trump’s sweeping global tariffs last year.

The US Supreme Court struck down those levies as illegal, but tolls on Chinese goods entering the US still sit at around 20 percent.

On the outskirts of Guangzhou, one garment factory owner lamented the chaos triggered by the US president’s trade war.

Overseas clients are afraid to place orders, while Chinese manufacturers cannot pin down changing costs.

“As a result, everyone is in a mutual state of decline,” garment boss Zhou, 55, said.

While 80 percent of his clients have returned, the fabrics scattered on his factory floor made into sweatpants headed for Europe and North America have risen 10 to 20 percent in cost due to the Middle East war.

As overseas orders dropped, seamsters went months without a job.

‘Tensions rise, orders disappear’

Migrant worker Jingjing returned to her hometown in Hubei province for two months, where she made half the 400 yuan (US$60) she now earns in Guangzhou’s garment factories.

“When tensions rise… orders suddenly disappear,” the 42-year-old said.

But this year she said she always has something to do.

In a damp back alley, Jingjing joined job-seekers milling about leisurely, haggling for higher wages while garment bosses perched on scooters brandished hiring signs, desperate for day labourers.

Chen, the vacuum factory manager, said he was “still worried” about surging shipping costs should the Iran war drag on.

“If shipping costs rise, it will cause the final costs for our customers to increase sharply,” he said.

They “will have no way to sell normally, because the costs are just too high”.

Chen said RIMOO plans to expand to other markets beyond the Middle East where around 60 percent of its customers are based.

“We are still optimistic,” he said. “The market demand still exists.”

But analysts warn the war’s impact on costs will be felt for months.

“The problem is all of these costs will filter through the supply chains for the rest of the year,” said supply chain consultant Cameron Johnson.

“The longer it goes on, that kind of cascades into much bigger problems, particularly if there’s not enough oil in general to run stuff.”

President Donald Trump said he had made “fantastic trade deals” with China’s Xi Jinping, as the pair met on Friday at final talks of a superpower summit that according to the US leader has also reaped a Chinese offer to help open the Strait of Hormuz.

Trump had arrived in Beijing seeking to seal deals in sectors including agriculture, aviation and artificial intelligence, as well as to contain differences between the two sides in a number of tense geostrategic areas — not least the Middle East war.

Trump’s overtures to Xi, whom he described as a “great leader” and “friend”, have so far been met with more muted tones by the Chinese leader.

But the US leader said “a lot of good” has come out of the visit.

“We’ve made some fantastic trade deals, great for both countries,” he said after a walk with Xi among the rosebushes in the gardens of Zhongnanhai, a central leadership compound next to Beijing’s Forbidden City.

“We’ve settled a lot of different problems that other people wouldn’t have been able to solve,” he added, without providing details.

Xi said it was a “milestone visit”, and that the two sides had to date established “a new bilateral relationship, which is a relationship of constructive strategic stability”.

He promised to send Trump seeds for the White House Rose Garden.

‘Help on Hormuz’

In an interview with Fox News after the first day of the summit wrapped, Trump said Xi had agreed to several US wishlist points.

On the topic of the war in Iran, the US president said Xi had effectively assured his counterpart that China was not preparing to militarily aid Tehran, which has essentially closed the Strait of Hormuz.

“He said he’s not going to give military equipment… he said that strongly,” Trump told Fox.

“He’d like to see the Hormuz Strait open, and said ‘if I can be of any help whatsoever, I would like to help,'” Trump added.

Asked whether the two leaders had discussed Iran, the Chinese foreign ministry on Friday released a statement calling for “a comprehensive and lasting ceasefire”.

“Shipping lanes should be reopened as soon as possible in response to the calls of the international community,” it added.

Taiwan policy ‘unchanged’

The warm handshakes and pomp on Thursday were somewhat overshadowed by a blunt warning from Xi on a much longer standing geopolitical flashpoint, Taiwan.

Shortly after talks started, Chinese state media reported Xi had told Trump that missteps on the sensitive issue of Taiwan could push their two countries into “conflict”.

The Fox News interview did not touch upon Taiwan, and Trump did not comment to reporters when asked about the matter on Thursday.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC the president would say more “in the coming days”.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio told NBC on Thursday though that “US policy on the issue of Taiwan is unchanged… as of the meeting”.

Beijing had raised the topic, he said, but “we always make clear our position, and we move on to the other topics”.

Taipei responded Friday thanking Washington “for repeatedly expressing its support”.

Boeing, oil, soybeans

Trump did not spell out on Friday the trade agreements that he said had been sealed with China.

However, in the Fox interview, Trump said one big business deal struck involved Xi agreeing to purchase “200 big” Boeing jets.

Shares of the US aviation giant fell after Trump’s comments, in a sign the market had expected a more robust purchase from China.

The US president also said Beijing had also voiced interest in buying US oil and soybeans.

China, which is the key foreign customer of Iranian oil, bought small amounts of US oil before Trump imposed tariffs last year.

It has sharply slowed down purchases of US soybeans, turning instead to Brazil.

Bessent told CNBC that Trump and Xi were talking about setting up “guardrails” for the use of artificial intelligence.

Bessent said the world’s “two AI superpowers are going to start talking”, though US export controls on the advanced technology to China remain a sore point in relations.

The Hong Kong government has denied any link to the high-profile UK court case after its trade officer was convicted of spying on overseas activists.

“From the outset, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Government has been clearly stating that the allegations in this case are absolutely not related to the HKSAR Government and the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in London (London ETO), nor are we party to the case,” a government statement sent to the media on Friday morning read.

“We firmly oppose any unfounded allegations against the HKSAR Government and the London ETO.”

The statement was issued shortly after Bill Yuen, an office manager at the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in London, and former UK Border Force official Peter Wai were found guilty under Britain’s national security laws of assisting a foreign intelligence service.

Yuen and Wai – both British-Chinese dual nationals – were accused of spying on Hong Kong pro-democracy activists living in Britain.

Among those the pair were said to have surveilled was Nathan Law, who is wanted by national security police in Hong Kong with a bounty of HK$1,000,000.

Yuen and Wai were charged in May 2024 alongside a third person, UK immigration officer Matthew Trickett. A week after Trickett was charged, he was found dead in a suspected suicide.

In full: Explainer: Why UK authorities arrested 3 men linked to Hong Kong’s trade office

According to a statement by UK counter-terrorism police, published after the guilty verdict on Thursday, Yuen had been receiving tasks from Hong Kong authorities and delegating them to Wai and Trickett.

Up to 14 years jail

Yuen and Wai were found guilty by a 10-2 jury verdict on Thursday. Wai was also found guilty of misconduct in public office in relation to abusing Home Office systems while working as a border control officer.

Yuen and Wai will be sentenced on a date yet to be determined. They face up to 14 years in jail.

According to the Friday statement, Hong Kong has 15 overseas ETOs in different cities, including the UK capital.

The London office maintains “close liaison with interlocutors in government, business, think tanks and various sectors to enhance the bilateral ties between Hong Kong and the UK in areas including trade, investment, and arts and culture,” it said.

After the guilty verdict, the UK said that it would summon the Chinese ambassador.

“We will continue to hold China to ​account and challenge them directly for actions which put the safety of people ​in our country at risk,” UK Security Minister Dan Jarvis said on Thursday. “That is why the Foreign Office will ⁠summon the Chinese Ambassador to make it clear activity like this was, and will ​always be, unacceptable on UK soil.”

In a statement issued the same day, the Chinese embassy in London condemned the verdict, saying that the UK had manipulated the judicial process as part of its “political move.”

“Its sole purpose is to embolden those anti-China elements who are hiding in the UK and bent on destabilising Hong Kong, and to smear the Chinese government and the Hong Kong SAR government,” it said.

The leaders of North Korea and China adopted a “far-reaching blueprint” for bilateral ties during Xi Jinping’s recent visit to Pyongyang, the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said on Wednesday.

China’s president made a rare visit to diplomatically isolated North Korea on Monday after hosting a series of world leaders, including US President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin, in Beijing.

The trip also came at a time of unusually warm relations between North Korea and Russia, where Pyongyang has sent soldiers and munitions to assist Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

Kim and Xi “expressed satisfaction and deep emotion over the fact that they provided a far-reaching blueprint for the development of the relations”, KCNA reported.

During the two-day trip, “the countries further deepened the revolutionary friendship and close comradely relationship and affirmed their steadfast will to develop the traditional DPRK-China friendly ties into a model of the most powerful and strategic relations”, it added.

Xi and Kim toured the Central Cadres Training School of the Workers’ Party, where they discussed the training of party officials and planted a commemorative tree, before visiting the Friendship Tower memorial honouring Chinese soldiers who fought in the Korean War.

Xi was afforded a lavish welcome on the trip, which he took with his wife and other senior officials.

Afterwards, he thanked Kim in a letter, saying the leaders had “made an in-depth exchange of views on the issues of mutual interest and achieved a series of important common understanding”, according to KCNA.

The talks “showed the firm determination of both sides to add lustre to the traditional friendship, promote development and prosperity together and defend peace and stability in the region and the rest of the world”, Xi reportedly wrote.

On Tuesday, China’s state-run Xinhua news agency reported Xi as saying he had reached “an important consensus with Kim on developing China-DPRK relations in the new era”, using North Korea’s official acronym.

Xi pushed to strengthen diplomatic, law enforcement and military ties, according to Beijing’s state media.

By sharing information in the military sector, China appears to want to “directly assess technological changes within the North Korean military and the status of Russian technology transfer”, said Hong Min, an analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification.

China may also hope to “collect intelligence for the purpose of monitoring trends in pro-Russian and pro-Chinese human networks within the North Korean military”, he added.

Nuclear silence

Xi’s trip came after last month’s talks with Trump, during which the White House said the leaders “confirmed their shared goal to denuclearise North Korea”.

But official media reports from both China and North Korea made no mention of denuclearisation in their coverage of the Xi-Kim summit.

Analysts said that suggested Beijing was tacitly accepting Pyongyang’s status as a nuclear-armed state.

Kim has repeatedly vowed never to give up his nuclear arsenal, and his powerful sister said before Xi’s visit that the programme was Pyongyang’s “line of no retreat”.

Despite being historically highly reliant on political and economic support from China, Kim has drawn North Korea closer to Russia in recent years.

He has boosted an alliance with Putin by sending troops to fight alongside Russian forces against Ukraine.

Still, Beijing remains an economic anchor for North Korea, whose economy has been hobbled for years by international sanctions over its nuclear programme.

China accounted for US$2.6 billion of North Korea’s foreign trade — nearly 98 percent of the total — in 2024, according to South Korea’s Ministry of Economy and Finance.

Taiwan’s air force suspended training flights on T-34 planes after one aircraft crashed during a simulated engine failure exercise on Tuesday, killing the two pilots on board.

The single-engine propeller plane went down at 8:08 am (0008 GMT) at the northern end of the runway at Gangshan Air Base in the island’s southern port city of Kaohsiung, the air force said.

A task force has been set up to investigate the cause of the crash, which took place about 20 minutes after takeoff.

The pilots, both lieutenant colonels and aged 41 and 45, had not reported any problems with the aircraft in the moments leading up to the crash, said the air force’s inspector general, Major General Chiang Yi-cheng.

“Throughout the entire flight there were no abnormal radio communications before the accident occurred,” Chiang told a news conference.

President Lai Ching-te said he was “deeply saddened” at the loss of life, describing the pilots as “heroic” and thanking them for their “sacrifice and dedication” to Taiwan.

The Taiwanese air force uses Beechcraft single-engine propeller planes as the primary trainer aircraft for its pilots, according to the defence ministry’s website.

The planes were first delivered to Taiwan in 1984.

In January, an F-16 fighter jet crashed into the sea off eastern Taiwan during a routine training mission. The pilot is believed to have ejected from the aircraft but has not been found.

US President Donald Trump on Friday warned Taiwan against declaring formal independence after concluding his visit to China, whose leader Xi Jinping had pressed him not to support the self-ruling island.

Trump ended the state visit claiming to have made “fantastic” trade deals, although the details were vague, and he did not appear to secure any breakthrough with China over his stalemated war on Iran.

Trump invited Xi for a reciprocal visit to Washington in September, signalling both sides will likely seek stability in the often turbulent relationship between the world’s two largest economies.

On a key issue for Xi, Trump made clear he opposed a declaration of independence by Taiwan and appeared to question why the United States would defend the island in case of attack.

“I’m not looking to have somebody go independent. And, you know, we’re supposed to travel 9,500 miles to fight a war. I’m not looking for that,” he told Fox News’ “Special Report with Bret Baier.”

“I want them to cool down. I want China to cool down,” Trump said.

“We’re not looking to have wars, and if you kept it the way it is, I think China’s going to be OK with that.”

The United States recognizes only Beijing and does not support formal independence by Taiwan, but historically has stopped short of explicitly saying it opposes independence.

Under US law, the United States is required to provide weapons to Taiwan for its defence, but it has been ambiguous on whether US forces would come to the island’s aid.

Xi had begun the summit with a warning on Taiwan, whose President Lai Ching-te considers the island already independent, making a declaration unnecessary.

Xi told Trump that missteps on the sensitive issue could cause “conflict”.

Referring to comments by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who said US policy toward Taipei was unchanged, Taiwan’s foreign ministry thanked the United States for showing “it supports and values Taiwan Strait peace and stability”.

No details on ‘fantastic’ deals

On Friday, Boeing confirmed that China had made an “initial commitment” to buy 200 aircraft, a deal previously announced by Trump. The company said more orders could follow.

Trump also said Beijing would buy American oil and soybeans.

“We’ve made some fantastic trade deals, great for both countries,” he said after a walk with Xi in the gardens of Zhongnanhai, a central leadership compound next to Beijing’s Forbidden City.

“We’ve settled a lot of different problems that other people wouldn’t have been able to solve,” Trump added, without providing specifics.

Xi promised to send Trump rose seeds for the White House Rose Garden and said it was a “milestone visit”.

But beyond Boeing, there were no other formal announcements from companies or from China on trade deals.

The reserve on the Chinese side echoes the tone of the summit as a whole, where Trump’s overtures to Xi — whom he described as a “great leader” and “friend” — were met with a more muted response.

“Trump got the optics he was looking for and the Chinese were happy to give them to him,” said Jacob Stokes, a senior fellow at the Centre for a New American Security.

Little on Iran

Trump had delayed the trip once due to the war in Iran, which has rebuffed his appeals for a peace agreement and retaliated by exerting control over the key Strait of Hormuz, sending global oil prices soaring.

Trump said Xi had assured him that China was not preparing military aid to Iran. Israel has alleged that Beijing has provided key missile technology to Tehran.

The Chinese foreign ministry on Friday released a statement on Iran saying “shipping lanes should be reopened as soon as possible”.

Trump also acknowledged that he could not persuade Xi to free Jimmy Lai, the imprisoned Hong Kong pro-democracy media tycoon whose cause is broadly backed in Washington.

“He told me, Jimmy Lai is a tough one for him to do,” Trump told reporters.

Bonnie Glaser, managing director of the German Marshall Fund’s Indo-Pacific program, noted that Trump had already sounded half-hearted in his public comments on Lai.

“My sense is that the Chinese see that this is not a top priority for the United States,” she said.

“What Trump seems to want most is purchases of American products — that appears to be his highest priority.”

The two leaders had been expected to discuss extending the one-year tariff truce that paused their frenetic 2025 trade war, struck during their last meeting in October.

But Trump told reporters on the way home that it “wasn’t brought up”.

President Donald Trump said Monday he was ready to discuss US arms sales to Taiwan during his visit this week to Beijing, as he suggested his personal chemistry with counterpart Xi Jinping would prevent a Chinese invasion of the island.

The White House said Trump will bring along top US executives including his former nemesis Elon Musk and Apple’s Tim Cook for a trip expected to focus heavily on the US president’s hopes to ramp up trade.

China said it hoped to achieve greater stability between the world’s two largest economies during the visit lasting Wednesday through Friday, the first by a US president since Trump went in 2017.

Asked if the United States should keep selling weapons to Taiwan, a key irritant for Beijing, Trump did not answer directly but said: “I’m going to have that discussion with President Xi.”

“President Xi would like us not to, and I’ll have that discussion. That’s one of the many things I’ll be talking about,” he said, speaking to reporters in the Oval Office.

Trump, after referencing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, said of Taiwan, “I don’t think it’ll happen.”

“I think we’ll be fine. I have a very good relationship with President Xi. He knows I don’t want that to happen,” he said.

But Trump also noted that the United States was “very, very far away” compared with China.

When asked for a response to Trump’s remarks, Taiwan’s foreign ministry vowed to “continue to strengthen cooperation” with the United States, the island’s main security backer, and “build effective deterrence capabilities in order to jointly maintain peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.”

Congress backs Taiwan

The United States recognizes only Beijing but under domestic law is required to provide weapons for the defense of Taiwan, a self-governing democracy which China considers its own.

Under the 1982 “Six Assurances,” a key foundation of US policy on Taiwan after the switch of recognition, the United States said it would not “consult” with Beijing about arms sales to the island.

Trump has long berated allies as not spending enough on their own defense. Days ahead of his trip to China, Taiwan’s parliament Friday approved a US$25 billion defense spending bill, although it fell short of the government’s proposal.

Pointing to the vote by parliament, a group of US senators led by Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said that Trump should immediately green-light a US$14 billion arms package to Taiwan.

“We urge you and your team to make clear that America’s support for Taiwan is inviolable,” wrote the senators, mostly Democrats but including two centrists from Trump’s Republican Party.

While discussing economic concerns, Trump should also state that “American support for Taiwan is not up for negotiation,” they wrote.

New sanctions over Iran

Trump delayed the trip once due to the war he launched with Israel against Iran, which is still rebuffing his appeals for an agreement.

China is the main international customer for Iran’s oil, which Trump has tried to stop all countries from buying through unilateral US sanctions.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in an interview Sunday with CBS News’ “60 Minutes,” said he was unhappy that Beijing had shared missile technology with Iran.

Trump’s Treasury Department on Monday issued sanctions against 12 individuals and entities it said facilitated the sale and shipment of Iranian oil to China.

The sanctions came even as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent prepared to set up Trump’s visit during talks with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in Seoul on Wednesday.

Bessent and He have been the chief negotiators for the United States and China on all trade and economic issues.

In Beijing on Monday, foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said that top-level diplomacy was “irreplaceable” between the two countries.

“China is willing to work with the United States in the spirit of equality, respect, and mutual benefit, to expand cooperation, manage differences, and inject more stability and certainty into a volatile and intertwined world,” he told a briefing.

Asked about US pressure on Iran, Guo said only that China’s position on Iran was “consistent” and that Beijing would continue to play a “positive role” in promoting a ceasefire and peace talks.

Trump and Xi last met face-to-face in October on the sidelines of a regional summit in South Korea.

They agreed then to a one-year truce in a blistering trade war that saw tariffs on many goods exceed 100 percent.

Taiwan’s main opposition leader said Monday she hopes to “gain deeper trust” from the United States, before departing for the country where she is expected to be grilled over her party’s stance on China and defence spending.

Kuomintang chairwoman Cheng Li-wun’s trip comes two months after her “peace” visit to Beijing, where she met Chinese President Xi Jinping — the first such meeting in a decade — and weeks after US President Donald Trump’s summit with Xi in the Chinese capital.

It also comes after the KMT recently thwarted the Taiwanese government’s plan to spend nearly US$40 billion on critical weapons, including US arms and domestically produced drones.

Speaking to reporters before departing for the United States — Taiwan’s most important security backer — Cheng said she hopes her party can play a key role in regional peace efforts and “gain deeper trust from the US”.

“Only the KMT is truly serious and responsible in taking on the most important role of maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” Cheng told a press conference.

Cheng has rocked Taiwanese politics since her unexpected rise to the top of the party last year and drawn criticism for being too pro-China.

The KMT has long advocated closer relations with China, which claims Taiwan is part of its territory and has threatened to use force to seize it.

But Cheng’s cross-strait rhetoric has gone beyond the comfort zone of many people in her own party and caused unease among foreign partners, including Washington.

‘Sharper questions’

Over the next two weeks, Cheng will visit San Francisco, Boston, New York, Washington and Los Angeles. She plans to meet with US lawmakers, government officials, think tanks and supporters, according to her itinerary.

Analysts told AFP that US government officials and lawmakers are likely to interrogate Cheng on the KMT’s position on China and its decision to slash the government’s special defence budget.

While Taiwan has its own defence industry, it remains heavily reliant on the United States for weapons to deter a potential attack by China.

But there are concerns in Taipei over Washington’s commitment after Trump recently suggested arms sales to the island could be a bargaining chip with China.

Compared with her trip to China, Cheng can expect “far less pomp and far sharper questions” in the United States, said Ryan Hass, an expert on China and Taiwan at the Washington-based Brookings Institution.

“Her challenge will be to persuade Washington that the KMT’s engagement with China can coexist with strong deterrence,” Hass wrote in a recent opinion piece in the Taipei Times newspaper.

Jason Hsu, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute think tank and former KMT lawmaker, said Cheng will face “a lot of serious questioning from the administration and Congress for KMT’s leaning toward Beijing”.

The KMT and Taiwan People’s Party, which together control parliament, recently passed a US$25 billion defence spending bill limited to US weapons.

It excluded the procurement of drones made in Taiwan, which the government has said is critical for developing domestic production capacity to sustain its forces during a war.