U.S. President Donald Trump has said he plans to speak directly with Taiwan President Lai Ching-te, a move that would mark a major break from long-standing diplomatic protocol between Washington and Taipei.
Trump told reporters, “I’ll speak to him,” while referring to what he called “the Taiwan problem.” It is the second time within a week that he has publicly said he intends to speak with Lai, suggesting the comments were deliberate rather than accidental.
No sitting U.S. president has formally spoken directly with a Taiwanese president since 1979, when the United States switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing under the “One China” policy.
The announcement is likely to anger China, which considers Taiwan part of its territory and strongly opposes official contact between U.S. and Taiwanese leaders. Beijing has repeatedly warned Washington against actions it believes encourage Taiwanese independence.
Beijing claims Taiwan as its territory and has not ruled out taking it by force. Lai, who took office in 2024, is behind one of the strongest pushes in years to strengthen the island’s defence.
The US has long supported Taiwan and is bound by law to provide it with a means of self-defence, but has had to balance this with maintaining a diplomatic relationship with China.
When asked on Wednesday if he planned to speak to Lai ahead of making a decision on US arms sales, Trump said: “I’ll speak to him. I speak to everybody.. we’ll work on that, the Taiwan problem.”
He also hailed his relationship with China’s President Xi as “amazing”, on the back of a two-day summit in Beijing last week.
When asked about the potential conversation between Trump and Lai, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said on Thursday that China “firmly opposes official exchanges between the United States and Taiwan”, as well as US arms sales to Taiwan.
China urges the US to “stop sending wrong signals to the separatist forces in Taiwan,” the spokesperson said.
Trump has said he has yet to decide if the sale of a $14bn (£10.4bn) arms package to Taiwan, reportedly including anti-drone equipment and air-defence missile systems, will go ahead.
According to a report by the Financial Times, Beijing is currently holding up a proposed visit by the Pentagon’s top policy official, Elbridge Colby – saying it cannot approve a visit until Trump decides how he will proceed with the arms deal.
Last week, while flying back from Beijing on Air Force One after his meeting with President Xi, Trump was similarly asked about weapons sales to Taiwan, to which he said he would “make a determination over the next fairly short period”.
“I have to speak to the person that right now is, you know who he is, that’s running Taiwan,” he said.
During Trump’s visit to Beijing, China had made it clear that Taiwan was one of the biggest issues in its relationship with the US, with Xi warning of “conflict” between the two superpowers if handled poorly.
And while Trump dismissed the potential for conflict between the US and China over the island, he said Xi felt “very strongly” about Taiwan. “I made no commitment either way,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One last week.
Since the Trump-Xi meeting, Lai has issued statements saying that the island is a “sovereign, independent democratic country” and that peace in the Taiwan Strait will not be “sacrificed or traded away”.
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