US President Donald Trump said “it’s up to” Chinese President Xi Jinping on what China does with Taiwan, but that he would be “very unhappy” with a change in the status quo.
“He (Xi) considers it to be a part of China, and that’s up to him what he’s going to be doing,” according to an interview Trump had with the New York Times, which was published on Thursday.
“But I’ve expressed to him that I would be very unhappy if he did that, and I don’t think he’ll do that. I hope he doesn’t do that.”
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Trump made the comments in the context of an exchange about what lessons Xi might take away from Trump’s audacious military operation in Venezuela.
Many analysts have said the ‘capture’ of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro undermines respect for international law and that Beijing could leverage Trump’s intervention to defend its territorial claims such as Taiwan, as well as islands in the East and South China Seas.
Beijing condemned Trump’s strike on Venezuela, saying it violated international law and threatened peace and security in Latin America. It has called for the US to release Maduro and his wife, who are being detained in New York awaiting trial.
But the Republican president said he did not view the situations as analogous, because Taiwan did not pose the same type of threat to China that he has said the Maduro government posed to the United States.
He also repeated his belief that Xi would not make a move against Taiwan during his presidency, which ends in 2029.
“He may do it after we have a different president, but I don’t think he’s going to do it with me as president,” Trump said.
The Trump administration said in a strategy document last year that it aims to prevent conflict with China over Taiwan and the South China Sea by building up US and allies’ military power.
China views democratically governed Taiwan as its own, and Beijing has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control. Taiwan rejects Beijing’s claims.
“The Taiwan question is purely China’s internal affair, and how to resolve it is a matter purely within China’s sovereign rights,” Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for China’s embassy in Washington said.
The United States has no formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, but Washington is the island’s most important international backer and is required by law to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself. The issue has been an irritant in US-China relations for years.
Trump has largely avoided directly saying how he would respond to a rise in tensions over the island.
Reuters with additional inputs and editing by Jim Pollard
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