China Power | Diplomacy | East Asia

After Trump-Xi Summit, Taiwan Breathes a Sigh of Relief

There was no “grand bargain” on Taiwan, but Taipei is still waiting for Trump to approve the latest arms package.

U.S. President Donald JTrump bids farewell to China’s President Xi Jinping at Zhongnanhai in Beijing, China, May 15, 2026.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping on May 13-15 came to an end, surprisingly, without any new deals announced. At the same time, fears that Taiwan might be thrown under the bus to reach those deals did not come to pass – at least so far as is known. 

Trump said before he left for China that arms sales to Taiwan would be a topic of discussion. This led to alarm that the weapons sales might be up for negotiations, in violation of longstanding U.S. policy on Taiwan. The Six Assurances – U.S. government policy since 1982 – state that Washington will not consult with Beijing on arms sales to Taiwan, as well promising that the United States will continue to provide Taiwan with arms. 

Ironically, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who accompanied Trump to Beijing, had proposed a Senate resolution in 2016, shortly before Tsai Ing-wen came to power in Taiwan, that reaffirmed the Six Assurances. A current bill introduced by the House would codify the Six Assurances into law. 

Those concerned that Trump might be about to negotiate with Xi on arms sales to Taiwan pointed to previous comments. In February, Trump told journalists that he was “talking to” Xi about U.S. arms sale to Taiwan, adding that the Chinese leader had urged him not to move forward with the sale. “We’ll make a determination pretty soon,” Trump concluded. 

Notably, the Trump administration has still yet to provide an official notification of $14 billion in arms sales. Reports in the Wall Street Journal and elsewhere suggested that the Trump administration was stalling because of the planned meetings with Xi. In response, a bipartisan group of U.S. senators issued a letter calling on Trump to move on the arms sales.

In addition to the arms sale issue, there were concerns in Taiwan that Trump might take a stance against Taiwanese independence. During the meeting between Xi and Kuomintang (KMT) chair Cheng Li-wun in Beijing last month, both Xi and Cheng emphasized the 1992 Consensus and the need to oppose Taiwanese independence. That Xi and Cheng echoed each other’s language has been interpreted by some analysts as a call for a United Front between the CCP and KMT against the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which is framed by both Beijing and Taiwan’s Blue parties as a political force hellbent on pursuing Taiwanese independence. 

Cheng plans to visit the United States in June and has stated that she hopes to meet with Trump during her trip. Fears in Taiwan, however, would be that Cheng would appeal to isolationist quarters of the Trump administration, who could scale down commitments to Taiwan on the pretext that the KMT could maintain relations with Beijing, and there was no further need to take actions that might provoke China. 

In the end, none of these fears came to pass. In fact, what may be most notable regarding the meeting between Trump and Xi is that the U.S. and Chinese readouts differed on the issue of Taiwan. 

Rubio had stated ahead of time that he expected Taiwan to come up in conversation between Trump and Xi, as it has in the past. China claims that Taiwan was indeed discussed between the two world leaders. The U.S. readout did not mention Taiwan, however. 

Xi is on the record a number of times during the meeting emphasizing the importance of Taiwan to China, as well as warning of the dangers of “clashes and even conflict” between the two superpowers if the U.S. doesn’t handle the Taiwan issue “properly.” But when Trump was asked repeatedly by international correspondents about whether he discussed Taiwan with Xi, the U.S. leader ignored the questions. 

It is not uncommon for meetings between Xi and other leaders to result in different........

© The Diplomat