Taiwan-US ties are rock solid, says President Lai
Taiwan’s ties with the United States are “rock solid,” the island’s president said on Thursday, hours after President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping spoke on the phone about topics that included the self-ruled island’s future.
“The Taiwan-US relationship is rock solid, and all cooperation projects will continue uninterrupted,” Taiwan President Lai Ching-te told reporters during a visit to textile merchants in western Taiwan. The comments came after Xi, in his first call with Trump since November, warned the US president to be “udent” about supplying arms to the self-ruled island, according to a readout of their call provided by China’s Foreign Ministry.
Taiwan is a self-ruled democracy that China claims as its own territory, to be annexed by force if necessary. Beijing prohibits all countries it has diplomatic relations with - including the US - from having formal ties with Taipei. Still, while the US doesn’t officially recognize Taiwan as a country, it is the island’s strongest informal backer and arms supplier.
In December, the US State Department announced its largest-ever arms sales package to Taiwan, valued at more than $11.1 billion and including missiles, artillery systems and drones. The package is yet to be approved by Congress.
China reacted angrily to the proposed arms sales, conducting two days of military drills around the island in late December, for which it dispatched air, navy and missile units. The arms sales are also facing pushback from Taiwan’s opposition KMT party and some of its population, along with a proposed increase of defense spending to 3.3 per cent of Taiwan’s gross domestic product.
Taiwan’s opposition-controlled parliament has blocked Lai’s budget plan, including a $40 billion special defense budget, proposing instead a much smaller defense spending plan. Trump said the call with Xi was “excellent” and “thorough” in a post late Wednesday on Truth Social.
He added that he is looking forward to a trip to China in April that will be the first of his current term in office. Trump also said China is considering buying 20 million tons of US soybeans in the current season, up from 12 million tons in the previous season.
