Xi expected to press US on arms sales

SUMMIT ASK: Sources speaking on condition of anonymity said China is offering to pressure Iran over the war in the Middle East in return for the US stopping arms sales

• By Trevor Hunnicutt, Yimou Lee and Ben Blanchard / Reuters, WASHINGTON

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Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is expected to press US President Donald Trump to halt Taiwan arms sales under a 1982 joint statement during a visit to Washington this week, which he could do at the US National Archives, sources briefed on the matter said.

China has repeatedly called for US arms sales to Taiwan to stop, but the US is bound by law to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself, despite the lack of formal diplomatic relations.

Three sources familiar with discussions between the US and China ahead of Xi’s trip to Washington for a summit with Trump said that Beijing is likely to bring up its interpretation of the third of the Three Joint Communiques between the two countries, signed in 1982. The earlier two were signed in 1972 and 1979.

US President Donald Trump, left, and Chinese President Xi Jinping stand next to each other in Beijing on May 14.

Photo: AFP

Under the communiques, the US said that it intends to gradually reduce its arms sales to Taiwan and does not seek long-term weapons sales to Taipei.

However, in an accompanying memo, then-US president Ronald Reagan said that US willingness to reduce arms sales is “conditioned absolutely upon the continued commitment of China to the peaceful solution” of differences with Taiwan.

China has sharply stepped up its military activities around Taiwan over the past five years, including staging war games with live missile tests. Its armed forces operate around Taiwan on an almost daily basis.

The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the government “resolutely opposes” US arms sales to Taiwan and that abiding by the Three Joint Communiques and previous US promises was a “necessary precondition” for the stable, healthy development of ties.

China’s official People’s Daily yesterday said that if the Taiwan issue was handled poorly it could push China-US ties “toward a very dangerous situation.”

Xi is slated to arrive in Washington today, with formal talks tomorrow and the archives visit on Friday.

A White House official said that Trump has said he would make a determination on the new arms sales package in a fairly short time.

In his first term, Trump approved more arms sales to Taiwan than any other president in history, and in his second term, he approved more in his first year than all four years under US president Joe Biden, the official added.

In Taipei, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it continues to closely track developments in US-China high-level exchanges while maintaining “robust communication” with the US.

The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity citing the sensitivity of the matter, said China has also asked for the US to stop deliveries of arms already ordered by Taiwan.

Xi could “emphasize to Trump that Taiwan is the provocateur and the sole source of instability in US-China relations, and that Taiwan is the one changing the status quo,” one of the sources said.

In return, China is offering help to put pressure on Iran over the war in the Middle East, the sources added.

The US follows a “one China policy” under which it officially takes no position on Taiwan’s sovereignty and acknowledges, but does not endorse, Beijing’s position that Taiwan is part of China.

The Trump administration in December last year approved an US$11 billion arms sales package to Taiwan, the largest ever. However, a second US$14 billion package has been on hold for months.

After a May summit in Beijing with Xi, Trump said he was holding it in abeyance and described it as a “very good negotiating chip.”

Under the “six assurances,” also issued in 1982 but only declassified in 2020, the US did not set a date for ending arms sales to Taiwan, nor did it agree to prior consultation with Beijing on such sales.

Senior US Republican figures have been expressing their support for Taiwan ahead of the summit.

US Senator Pete Ricketts, chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on East Asia, the Pacific and International Cybersecurity Policy, told an event at the Hudson Institute last week that Trump should take a firm line on Taiwan and make clear that US policy on Taiwan remained unchanged.

“We need to continue just to again let them know that they’re not going to be allowed to take Taiwan by force. That we are not changing our position on that. We’re continuing to support Taiwan,” he said.

In a letter to Trump on Friday, US Representative John Moolenaar, chairman of the US House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the US and the Chinese Communist Party, wrote in a reference to Taiwan and US allies in Asia that Chinese objections to US arms sales and security cooperation should be “rejected out of hand.”

Speaking at a defense forum in Taipei on Saturday, Matt Pottinger, the deputy national security adviser in Trump’s first administration, said he did not expect anything “substantive” on Taiwan during this week’s meetings.

“I would bet that Xi Jinping is going to lecture at length President Trump on Taiwan as he has in the last meetings and as he has with other presidents,” he said.