The United States providing weapons to Taiwan to protect its freedom and provide semiconductors to the world is in the US national interest, a senior Taiwanese diplomat said on Saturday following a summit between the Chinese and US presidents.
Speaking to reporters in Taipei, Deputy Foreign Minister Francois Wu asked whether making concessions on Taiwan would actually serve US interests. “We want peace across the strait. We don’t want coercion. We don’t support independence and we think that, you know, President Xi has gotten that message.
President Trump has shown respect and listened to their side of that argument,” Perdue said. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping ended a three-day summit on Friday with no big public breakthroughs on a host of contentious issues, including Taiwan which Beijing views as its own territory.
Wu said the government had been in “continuous communication” with Washington about the summit. As to whether a decision on that could be delayed further, given Xi and Trump are expected to meet twice more this year at the APEC and G20 summits, Wu said the government had to pay close attention.
Maintaining military sales, giving Taiwan sufficient capability to defend itself so it does not have to live under Chinese rule and “allowing Taiwan’s semiconductor industry to continue contributing to the world, these are important US interests”, Wu said.
