Trump’s call with Taiwanese president suspended

President Trump is no longer expected to speak with Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s possible trip to the United States this fall, multiple sources familiar with the discussions told CBS News.

When Mr. Trump visited China earlier this month, Xi warned that Taiwan could become a “very dangerous situation” if mismanaged.

Mr. Trump made international headlines twice in mid-May when he indicated he would have a conversation with Lai before making a decision to sell a new package of defensive military weapons to the democratic, self-governing island.

“I’ll talk to him,” Mr. Trump told reporters last week when asked if he would talk to Lai before greenlighting the arms sale.

“I need to talk to the person who is currently — you know who it is — running Taiwan,” Mr. Trump said two weeks ago on Air Force One.

No sitting US president has spoken directly with a Taiwanese leader since 1979 due to the diplomatic sensitivities of managing relations with China, although in December 2016, when Mr Trump was president-elect, he received a congratulatory call by then Taiwanese President Tsai Ying-wen.

“I think [Lai]“If he has time, I would love to tell him our side of the story, the story of Taiwan, which is one of resilience, of a state resisting Chinese aggression,” said Alexander Yui, Taiwan’s representative to the United States. said “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” on May 17.

Taiwan’s de facto embassy in the United States told CBS News this week that it was still waiting for a phone call from the United States.

A White House official referred CBS News to the president’s comments.

The Chinese Communist Party has long pledged to “reunify” the island with the Chinese mainland, and the potential use of military force remains a risk. After Mr. Trump discussed a possible phone call, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson said that Beijing opposed any “official exchanges between the United States and China’s Taiwan region, and that U.S. arms sales to Taiwan were consistent, clear and firm.”

During Mr. Trump’s two-day visit to Beijing, during which he said he spoke “in detail” to Xi about arms sales to Taipei, the president also told Fox News that he planned to keep the weapons “on hold,” depending on what China does. He suggested that arming Taiwan could be a useful “bargaining chip” for the United States, but he did not elaborate.

Under a Reagan-era polixie known as Six insurancesthe United States has pledged not to cut off arms sales to Taiwan and not to consult Beijing on such sales.

“So what am I going to do? Say, ‘I don’t want to talk to you about it, because I have an agreement that was signed in 1982?’ No, we discussed arms sales,” Trump told reporters on the trip home from China.

The latest US arms sale to Taiwan, totaling $11 billion, was announced by the US administration in December last year. A sequel A package of 14 billion dollars has been under consideration since January but has not yet received the green light from the State Department and is awaiting Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s signature.

Hung Cao, Acting Secretary of the Navy said Congress earlier this month that the sale had been put “pause” to ensure that the US military has sufficient ammunition for its operations in Iran. A source familiar with the arms sales later told CBS News that the delay was not related to Iran and that the president was expected to make a decision “soon.”

“Taiwan and the United States maintain open and smooth communications as the U.S. government reaffirms that its long-standing policy toward Taiwan remains unchanged and supports the status quo and peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office (TECRO), Taiwan’s de facto embassy in the United States, said in a statement to CBS News.

Mr. Trump has invited Xi to visit him on September 24, the White House said, although China has not yet accepted the invitation.

Qiu Wenxing, deputy chief of mission and minister at the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C., told reporters on Wednesday that although Xi had agreed to visit the United States in the fall, “the date must be determined,” and he added that “favorable conditions must be created before such an important state visit.”

Although no calls with Taipei are planned, two sources said Mr. Trump always likes to keep options open.