U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping talk while departing after bilateral talks at Gimhae International Airport on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit in Busan, South Korea, on October 30, 2025.
Evelyn HochsteinReuter
President Donald Trump said Chinese President Xi Jinping had given assurances that Beijing would take no action toward its long-held goal of reunifying Taiwan and mainland China during the Republican leader’s tenure.
President Trump said the long-contentious issue of Taiwan did not come up during Thursday’s meeting with Xi in South Korea, which focused primarily on U.S.-China trade tensions. However, the US leader expressed confidence that China would not take action against Taiwan during his term.
“President Trump has said it publicly, and his people have said publicly in meetings, “We’re not going to do anything while President Trump is president,” because they know the consequences,” Trump said in an excerpt from an interview on CBS’ “60 Minutes,” which will air Sunday.
U.S. officials have long worried that China could use force against Taiwan, an autonomous island democracy that China claims as part of its territory.
The Taiwan Relations Act of 1979, which governs relations between Taiwan and the United States, does not require the United States to intervene militarily in the event of China’s invasion, but it is US policy to ensure that Taiwan has the resources to defend itself and to prevent Beijing from unilaterally changing its status.
Asked if he would order the U.S. military to defend Taiwan if China attacked, President Trump demurred. Both Republican and Democratic administrations have maintained a policy of “strategic ambiguity” toward Taiwan, trying to remain secretive about whether the United States would support Taiwan in such a scenario.
“We’ll see, and he understands the answer,” Trump said of Xi.
Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington, did not directly respond to a question about whether President Trump had received any assurances regarding Taiwan from Mr. Xi or other Chinese officials. He said in a statement that China “will never allow any person or force to separate Taiwan from China.”
“The Taiwan issue is China’s internal affairs and is at the heart of China’s core interests. How to resolve the Taiwan issue is a matter for the Chinese people, and only the Chinese people can decide.”
The White House also did not provide details about when Xi or other Chinese officials told Trump that military action against Taiwan was off the table during the Republican president’s term.
The “60 Minutes” interview was taped Friday at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. It was Trump’s first appearance on the show since he settled a lawsuit with CBS News over the summer over an interview with Kamala Harris in the magazine.
The rest of the interview will be aired later Sunday.
