The president of the United States, Donald Trump, assured this Friday on the plane to Washington that he has had a “good understanding” with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, about Iran and Taiwan, the island that Beijing does not rule out invading and to which the White House sells weapons, and stated that he did not commit to anything in this regard.
Already aboard Air Force One heading to Washington after spending less than 48 hours in Beijing, Trump answered questions from the journalists accompanying him, among other issues about Iran and Taiwan, a red line for China.
“President Xi and I talk a lot about Taiwan (…) He is very against what they are doing. We talk about Iran and about that. And I think we are going to have a very good understanding on both issues,” he indicated, alluding to the independence movements of the self-governed island that Beijing considers a “rebellious province.”
The US president assured that Xi “does not want to see a fight for independence” from Taiwan, considering that this would mean “a very strong confrontation”, but added: “I listened to him. I did not make any comments about it.”
Regarding whether Xi asked him to limit arms sales to Taipei, Trump responded that he will make a decision “in a fairly short period of time” and that he will speak with “the person who now runs Taiwan,” in apparent reference to Taiwanese President William Lai.
The Republican also denied that there is an immediate risk of conflict between China and the United States over Taiwan and stated that Xi “does not want to see a war”, after the Chinese leader warned on Thursday that a “mismanagement” of the issue could lead both countries to “clash” or even “conflict.”
The remarks come after weeks of expectation about whether Xi would use the visit to pressure Trump to limit arms sales to Taipei or make some more explicit commitment on U.S. policy toward the island, whose sovereignty China claims.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared in an interview with NBC from Beijing that Washington’s policy on Taiwan “remains unchanged.”
For more than seven decades, the United States has been in the middle of disputes between Beijing and Taipei, given that Washington is committed by law to providing Taiwan with the necessary means for its self-defense and, although it does not maintain diplomatic ties with the island, it could defend it in the event of a conflict with the Asian giant.
“Very similar” view on Iran
Regarding Iran, of which China is its largest trading partner and main allied power, Trump assured that the only way to reach an understanding with Tehran is for it to give “guarantees” that they will carry out a “real” twenty-year denuclearization plan.
The leader affirmed that Iran’s proposal so far is “unacceptable” and that he discarded it after seeing “the first page”, while affirming that he agreed with Xi that Tehran could not have a nuclear weapon and should reopen the Strait of Hormuz, from where China receives much of its oil.
Hours before, still from Beijing, he assured that both share a “very similar” vision on how to end the conflict, which the United States and Israel began at the end of February.
“We talked about Iran. We have a very similar opinion about Iran. We want it to end and we don’t want them to have a nuclear weapon and we want the strait to open,” Trump said at a meeting in Zhongnanhai, the complex near the Forbidden City in Beijing that houses the leadership of the ruling Communist Party of China (CCP).
