WASHINGTON, Jan 8 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said “it’s up to” Chinese President Xi Jinping what China does on Taiwan, but that he would be “very unhappy” with a change in the status quo, according to an interview the New York Times published on Thursday.
“He (Xi) considers it to be a part of China, and that’s up to him what he’s going to be doing,” Trump told the newspaper on Wednesday.
“But I’ve expressed to him that I would be very unhappy if he did that, and I don’t think he’ll do that. I hope he doesn’t do that.”
Trump made the comments in the context of an exchange about what lessons Xi might take away from Trump’s audacious military operation in Venezuela.
The Republican president said he did not view the situations as analogous because Taiwan did not pose the same type of threat to China that he has said the government of Nicolas Maduro posed to the United States.
He also repeated his belief that Xi would not make a move against Taiwan during his presidency, which ends in 2029.
“He may do it after we have a different president, but I don’t think he’s going to do it with me as president,” Trump said.
The Trump administration said in a strategy document last year that it aims to prevent conflict with China over Taiwan and the South China Sea by building up U.S. and allies’ military power.
China views democratically governed Taiwan as its own, and Beijing has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control. Taiwan rejects Beijing’s claims.
“The Taiwan question is purely China’s internal affair, and how to resolve it is a matter purely within China’s sovereign rights,” said Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for China’s embassy in Washington.
The United States has no formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, but Washington is the island’s most important international backer and is required by law to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself. The issue has been an irritant in U.S.-China relations for years.
Trump has largely avoided directly saying how he would respond to a rise in tensions over the island.
(Reporting by Jasper Ward and Trevor Hunnicutt in Washington; editing by Costas Pitas and Stephen Coates)
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