Donald Trump says he will discuss with Xi Jinping a thorny issue for China: arms sales. To whom
US President Donald Trump said on Monday that he will talk with his counterpart Xi Jinping during his trip to China this week about the sale of US weapons to Taiwan, for which there is strong opposition from Beijing, reports AFP, according to Agerpres.
“I will have this discussion with President Xi. President Xi would like us not to,” the US president told reporters at the White House.
US policy towards Taiwan, which China considers a province of its own, is based on robust military support for the island, without fully recognizing it and without openly supporting its diplomatic shenanigans.
Since 1982, one of the great tenets of this American strategy has been not to “consult” Beijing on arms sales to Taiwan.
Donald Trump, who will be in China between May 12 and 14, downplayed the risk of an invasion of the island by China.
“I don't think that's going to happen,” he said of Taiwan after raising Russia's attack on Ukraine, saying the “very good relationship” it has with its Chinese counterpart would prevent such an initiative from Beijing.
Xi Jinping “knows I don't want that to happen,” the Republican leader said.
The US president also assured that he would ask the Chinese president to release Jimmy Lai, a former pro-democracy media magnate in Hong Kong, who was sentenced in February to 20 years in prison for undermining national security.
The 79-year-old billionaire said he would also discuss the case of a Christian pastor detained in China with Beijing. According to the American media, it is about Ezra Jin.
