President Donald Trump said Friday that Chinese President Xi Jinping refused to answer directly when asked if the United States would defend Taiwan if China attacked it.
“That question was asked to me today,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One as he returned to the United States from a two-day summit in Beijing.
“That question was asked to me today by President Xi. I said I would not talk about it,” the president said.
President Trump’s comments were in response to a reporter’s question about whether the United States would defend Taiwan if China attacked it.
President Trump responded, “I don’t want to say that.”
“There’s only one person who knows that. You know who it is? It’s me. I’m the only one,” he said, noting that Xi had asked the same question before.
At the start of the summit, President Xi sternly warned President Trump that if the long-standing issue of Taiwan’s independence was mishandled, the United States and China would “clash and even conflict will ensue.”
China’s state news agency Xinhua reported on Thursday that President Xi told his US counterpart that the “entire relationship” between the two countries could be “at great risk” if the issue was not handled “properly”.
According to Xinhua news agency, Mr. Xi told President Trump that the “Taiwan issue” is “the most important issue in China-US relations.”
