Taiwan: Trump to Decide on Call With Leader
Get the Geopolitics newsletter
Daily geopolitics — wars, elections, sanctions, the diplomatic moves that move markets. Free.
- Taiwan's Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung told reporters in Taipei that 'only Trump knows when a call may take place,' adding Taipei is 'ready to have a call at any time'
- Trump said after his summit with Xi Jinping last month that he would speak with Taiwan President Lai Ching-te — no U.S. president has spoken to a Taiwan leader since the U.S. recognized Beijing's government in 1979
- Lin said the proposed call has 'made the Chinese communists nervous' because Beijing views any engagement with Taiwan's government as touching its sovereignty claims; Taiwan rejects Beijing's sovereignty claims
- Trump is still considering approving a roughly $14 billion arms package to Taiwan, per Reuters reporting, with Lin saying the Trump-Xi meeting 'has not caused the United States to stop or cancel arms sales to Taiwan'
- The United States is bound by law to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself and announced its largest-ever $11 billion package to Taiwan in December, to the fury of Beijing
Why it matters: For Taipei, the symbolic weight of a U.S. president-to-Taiwan-leader call is historic — no such contact has occurred since 1979 — while the pending $14 billion arms decision carries concrete defense stakes, and Lin's framing deliberately positions Beijing as the anxious party rather than Taiwan.
Ask SkimNews
