Taiwan confident in US ties but hopes for no ‘surprises’ from Trump’s China summit

By Ben Blanchard

TAIPEI, May 11 (Reuters) – Taiwan is confident in the stable development of its ties with the U.S. but hopes there are no “surprises” on Taiwan-related issues when U.S. President Donald Trump visits China this week, Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung said on Monday.

Trump will be in Beijing from Wednesday to Friday for a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping where the issue of democratically governed Taiwan, which China views as its territory, is certain to come up.

China has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control, and last month China’s foreign minister said Taiwan was the “biggest risk” in China-U.S. relations. Taiwan’s government rejects China’s sovereignty claims.

The U.S. is bound by law to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself, and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said last week there needed to be stability across the Taiwan Strait.

Speaking to reporters at parliament in Taipei, Lin said the government was closely monitoring the upcoming Trump-Xi meeting.

“We have also maintained continuous communication with the United States – whether through public statements from the U.S. government or through non-public channels. We are confident in the stable development of Taiwan-U.S. relations,” he said.

“The U.S. government has repeatedly expressed that its Taiwan policy will not change,” Lin added.

Taking questions from lawmakers later, he said the U.S. was clear on the issues it wanted discussed, like trade and fentanyl, but China kept raising the Taiwan issue. 

“Of course we hope that the Trump-Xi summit does not produce any surprises regarding Taiwan-related issues,” Lin said.

DEFENCE SPENDING STYMIED

The U.S. has pushed Taiwan, along with its major allies around the world, to spend more on their defence.

But last week, Taiwan’s opposition-controlled parliament passed a smaller special defence budget than the government had requested, and removed clauses for spending on domestically developed systems like surface-to-air missiles and drones.

A senior U.S. official said on Sunday that the U.S. was disappointed by parliament approving defence spending short of what Washington believed was needed.

Lin said he hoped parliament could take “remedial” action so that the defence budget could support Taiwan’s security policy, as maintaining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait was a common goal shared by Taiwan and like-minded nations. 

“However, peace depends on strength – it requires demonstrating the defence capability for self-defence in order to deter aggression,” he said. 

Speaking at a separate event in Taipei, Premier Cho Jung-tai said the government would “certainly take action” to restore the trust of the international community in Taiwan’s defence policy.

“Having it fragmented in this way is a serious blow to defence and security,” he said.

China has continued its regular military activities around Taiwan in the run-up to Trump’s China trip, including holding another “joint combat readiness patrol” last week.

On Saturday, China’s defence ministry said such operations were “entirely justified and reasonable”.

“‘Taiwan independence’ is the root cause destabilising peace in the Taiwan Strait, and we will absolutely not tolerate or condone it,” said ministry spokesperson Jiang Bin. 

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Kate Mayberry)