Trump mum on U.S. defending Taiwan from China

President Donald Trump mentioned Friday that he refused to immediately reply Chinese language President Xi Jinping when requested if america would defend Taiwan if China attacked it.

“That query was requested to me at the moment,” Trump instructed reporters on Air Pressure One as they flew again to america from a two-day summit in Beijing.

“That query was requested to me at the moment by President Xi. I mentioned I do not discuss that,” the president mentioned.

Trump’s remark got here in response to a reporter who had requested if the U.S. would defend Taiwan within the occasion of a Chinese language assault.

“I do not wish to say that,” Trump replied.

“There’s just one individual that is aware of that. who it’s? Me. I am the one particular person,” he mentioned, earlier than noting that Xi had requested the identical query of him earlier.

When the summit started, Xi pointedly warned Trump that the U.S. and China “may have clashes and even conflicts” if the long-standing challenge of Taiwan’s independence is mishandled.

Xi instructed his American counterpart it might put “the complete relationship” between their two nations “in nice jeopardy” if that challenge just isn’t “correctly” dealt with, the Chinese language state information outlet Xinhua reported on Thursday.

Xi instructed Trump that “the Taiwan query” is “an important challenge in China-U.S. relations,” Xinhua reported.