U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping speech arsenic they permission aft a bilateral gathering astatine Gimhae International Airport, connected the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, successful Busan, South Korea, October 30, 2025.
Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters
President Donald Trump says that Chinese President Xi Jinping has fixed him assurances that Beijing would instrumentality nary enactment toward its long-stated extremity of unifying Taiwan with mainland China portion the Republican person is successful office.
Trump said that the long-contentious contented of Taiwan did not travel up successful his talks with Xi connected Thursday successful South Korea that mostly focused connected U.S.-China commercialized tensions. But the U.S. person expressed certainty that China would not instrumentality enactment connected Taiwan, portion he's successful office.
"He has openly said, and his radical person openly said astatine meetings, 'We would ne'er bash thing portion President Trump is president,' due to the fact that they cognize the consequences," Trump said successful an excerpt of an interrogation with the CBS' programme "60 Minutes" that volition aerial connected Sunday.
U.S. officials person agelong been acrophobic astir the anticipation of China utilizing subject unit against Taiwan, the self-ruled land ideology claimed by Beijing arsenic portion of its territory.
The 1979 Taiwan Relations Act, which has governed U.S. relations with the island, does not necessitate the U.S. to measurement successful militarily if China invades but makes it American argumentation to guarantee Taiwan has the resources to support itself and to forestall immoderate unilateral alteration of presumption by Beijing.
Asked if helium would bid U.S. forces to support Taiwan if China attacked, Trump demurred. The United States, some Republican and Democratic administrations, person maintained a argumentation of "strategic ambiguity" connected Taiwan — trying not to extremity their hands connected whether the U.S. would travel to the island's assistance successful specified a scenario.
"You'll find retired if it happens, and helium understands the reply to that," Trump said of Xi.
Liu Pengyu, spokesperson for the Chinese embassy successful Washington, did not respond straight to a query astir whether Trump has received immoderate assurances from Xi oregon Chinese officials astir Taiwan. He insisted successful a connection that China "will ne'er let immoderate idiosyncratic oregon unit to abstracted Taiwan from China successful immoderate way."
"The Taiwan question is China's interior affair, and it is the halfway of China's halfway interests. How to resoluteness the Taiwan question is simply a substance for the Chinese radical ourselves, and lone the Chinese radical tin determine it," the connection added.
The White House besides did not supply further details astir erstwhile Xi oregon Chinese officials person conveyed to Trump that subject enactment connected Taiwan was off-the-table for the duration of the Republican's presidency.
The "60 Minutes" interrogation was taped connected Friday astatine Trump's Mar-a-Lago edifice successful Florida. It marked Trump's archetypal quality connected the amusement since helium settled a suit this summertime with CBS News implicit the newsmagazine's interrogation with Kamala Harris.
The remainder of the interrogation is scheduled to aerial aboriginal Sunday.
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