Taiwan is a self-governing island democracy that Beijing claims as part of its territory, and US officials have long been worried that China may use military action against it.
US President Donald Trump has claimed that his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping assured him that Beijing will not pursue its long-standing objective of uniting Taiwan with mainland China while he is in office.
“He has openly said, and his people have openly said at meetings, ‘We would never do anything while President Trump is president,’ because they know the consequences,” Trump said in an excerpt of an interview with CBS on Sunday.
According to Trump, his discussions with Xi on Thursday in South Korea, which mostly centred on US-China trade concerns, did not touch on the contentious issue of Taiwan. Nonetheless, the US president stated his confidence that China would not move on Taiwan during his administration.
Asked if he would order US forces to defend Taiwan if China attacked, Trump said, “You’ll find out if it happens, and he understands the answer to that.”
In response, Liu Pengyu, spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington, said in a statement that China “will never allow any person or force to separate Taiwan from China in any way.
“The Taiwan question is China’s internal affair, and it is the core of China’s core interests. How to resolve the Taiwan question is a matter for the Chinese people ourselves, and only the Chinese people can decide it,” the statement added.
'Strategic ambiguity' on Taiwan
US officials have long been concerned about the possibility of China using military force against Taiwan, the self-ruled island democracy claimed by Beijing as part of its territory.
It is US policy to ensure Taiwan has the resources to defend itself and to prevent Beijing from changing its status unilaterally.
However, the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act, which has governed US relations with the island, does not obligate Washington to intervene militarily in the event of an invasion.
Under previous administrations, the US has maintained a policy of "strategic ambiguity" toward Taiwan, attempting to avoid signalling whether it would support the island in such a situation.