By Bo Erickson, Michael Martina and Trevor Hunnicutt
WASHINGTON, May 20 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he would speak with Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te, an unprecedented move for a U.S. leader that could roil U.S. relations with China.
U.S. and Taiwanese presidents have not spoken directly since Washington shifted diplomatic recognition to Beijing from Taipei in 1979.
Beijing has never renounced the use of force to take control of the democratically governed island. It has been angered by longstanding U.S. military support for Taiwan to deter Chinese military action.
“I’ll speak to him,” Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland before boarding Air Force One when asked about Lai. “I speak to everybody … We’ll work on that, the Taiwan problem.”
It’s the second time in a week Trump has said he intends to speak to Lai, dispelling initial speculation that his first mention of it after meeting China’s leader Xi Jinping last week was a verbal slip.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on when such a call might happen or what would be discussed. China’s embassy in Washington also did not respond immediately.
‘AMAZING’ RELATIONSHIP WITH XI
Trump administration officials have noted that Trump has approved the sale of more weapons to Taiwan than any other U.S. president.
But he has also repeatedly touted his relationship with Xi as “amazing.”
After last week’s trip to Beijing, Trump said he has not decided whether to proceed with a major weapons sale worth up to $14 billion to Taiwan, adding to uncertainty about U.S. support for the island.
Any direct U.S.-Taiwan conversation would ordinarily anger China, which sees the island as its own territory.
However, Trump’s language has sent mixed signals to Taipei. While Lai has welcomed the chance to speak to Trump, the U.S. president’s reference to the “Taiwan problem” echoes Beijing’s phrasing.
Lai, who Beijing views as a separatist, said earlier on Wednesday that if he got the opportunity to speak to Trump, he would say his government is committed to maintaining the status quo across the Taiwan Strait, and that it was China that was undermining peace with its massive military build-up in the Indo-Pacific.
“No country has the right to annex Taiwan. The people of Taiwan pursue a democratic and free way of life, and democracy and freedom should not be regarded as provocation,” Lai said.
Under U.S. law, Washington is required to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself, and both Republican and Democratic U.S. lawmakers have urged the Trump administration to continue with weapons sales.
Underscoring Taiwan’s strategic importance to the U.S., the island of 23 million people is the fourth-largest U.S. trading partner, behind China, which has 1.4 billion people. Much of that trade is based on exports to the U.S. of advanced semiconductors, which fuel the global economy.
(Reporting by Bo Erickson, Michael Martina and Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Doina Chiacu, Michelle Nichols, Don Durfee, Rod Nickel)
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