Under US law, Washington is obliged to supply Taiwan with weapons for its defense, but it is unclear whether US forces would help the island in the event of an attack.
United States President Donald Trump warned Taiwan this Friday (15) against any declaration of independence, after his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping pressured Washington not to support the island.
The American leader made it clear that opposes a declaration of independence for Taiwan. “I have no desire for anyone to declare independence, you know, assuming we have to travel 15,000 kilometers to go to war,” Trump said, according to an excerpt from an interview with Fox News. “I want [Taiwan] they calm down. I want China to calm down,” he declared.
Under United States law, Washington is obliged to supply weapons to Taiwan for its defensebut it is unclear whether American forces would help the island in the event of an attack. “We don’t want anyone to think: we are going to proclaim independence because the United States supports us,” he insisted, adding that he had not yet decided anything about a possible sale of arms to the island, which has Washington as its main source of military support.
The United States only recognizes China and does not support Taiwan’s official independencean autonomous island with a democratic regime that Beijing claims as part of its territory and whose reunification it does not rule out achieving through the use of force.
The Republican tycoon ended his state visit with the announcement that he had reached “fantastic” trade deals, although he did not give many details nor did he appear to have achieved any decisive advances with China regarding the war with Iran.
On Thursday (14), with unusual firmness, Xi warned Trump that “the Taiwan issue is the most important in relations” between Washington and Beijing. “If it is well managed, relations between the two countries can remain globally stable. If it is poorly managed, the two countries will collide, or even come into conflict”, said the Chinese leader, according to state media.
Trump invited Xi to visit Washington in September, suggesting the world’s two biggest economies are likely to seek to stabilize their often turbulent relations. Xi Jinping’s announced visit to Washington next fall [no hemisfério norte, primavera no Brasil] will represent a new test for the fragile status quo between the two powers.
