Published On 2/11/2025
|
Last update: 22:36 (Mecca time)
US President Donald Trump said that his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, is aware of the “consequences” that will result from his country’s invasion of Taiwan, but he refused to clarify whether it will militarily defend the island.
This came in an interview conducted by CBS News on Friday with Trump, and an excerpt of it was broadcast on Sunday.
Trump said Taiwan “never came up as a topic” when he met Xi in South Korea on Thursday for their first face-to-face meeting in six years.
When asked whether he would order US forces to act if China attacked Taiwan militarily, Trump replied, “You will know if that happens, and he knows the answer.”
But he refused to clarify what he meant in the interview conducted Friday at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
“I can’t reveal my secrets. The other side knows,” he added.
The US President confirmed that Xi and those close to him “openly said that we will not do anything while President Trump is in office, because they realize the consequences.”
China considers self-governing Taiwan part of its territory.
Pursuant to a decades-old policy, the United States only recognizes Beijing, but supplies the island with weapons to defend itself.
This issue continues to raise tensions, while Trump and Xi seem to have avoided it at their summit and focused on easing trade tensions between the two countries.