ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE — United States President Donald Trump said on Monday he would decide soon on whether to send more weapons to Taiwan, after Chinese President Xi Jinping warned him not to do so.
“I’m talking to him about it. We had a good conversation, and we’ll make a determination pretty soon,” Trump said, adding that he had a “good relationship” with the Chinese leader, whose country claims the self-ruled island as its territory.
In a phone call with Trump on Feb. 4, Xi called for “mutual respect” in relations with the US, while warning Washington about arms sales to the democratically run island.
MULLING IT OVER United States President Donald Trump speaks to reporters on Air Force One while flying to Joint Base Andrews from West Palm Beach, Florida, on Feb.16, 2026. AFP PHOTO
“The Taiwan question is the most important issue in China-US relations… The US must handle arms sales to Taiwan with caution,” China’s state broadcaster cited Xi as saying.
Trump and Xi are due to meet in the Chinese capital Beijing in April.
China’s Communist Party has never ruled Taiwan, but Beijing claims the island of 23 million people as part of its territory and has not ruled out the use of force to annex it.
Washington does not officially recognize Taiwan, but is the island territory’s main military backer — although the tone of that support has softened slightly under Trump.
The US approved $11-billion worth of arms to Taiwan in December, Taipei said.
Shortly thereafter, China launched major live-fire drills to simulate a blockade around Taiwan’s key ports.
While Trump has adopted a softer tone on support for Taiwan in his second term, the issue remains a thorn in US-China relations.
On Saturday, Beijing’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi warned the US against “plotting” on Taiwan, saying it could lead to a “confrontation” with China.
At the Munich Security Conference in southern Germany, Wang said that, in the future, the US could adopt a China policy that involves “instigating and plotting to split China through Taiwan, crossing China’s red line.”
Taiwan has spent many billions of dollars upgrading its military in the past decade, but faces growing US pressure to do more to protect itself against China.
Taiwan’s leader Lai Ching-te has proposed $40 billion in extra defense spending by his government over eight years, but the plan has been blocked by the opposition-controlled parliament 10 times since early December.
On Thursday, dozens of US lawmakers urged Taiwan’s opposition political parties to end their blocking of the move.
In an exclusive interview with Agence France-Presse (AFP) last week, Lai said he was confident the defense budget would be passed.