In its readout of the first meeting in Beijing between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping, the Chinese Communist Party states that “ ‘Taiwan independence’ and cross-Strait peace are as irreconcilable as fire and water,” the usual silliness. The People’s Republic of China has never governed Taiwan, to which the Kuomintang fled in 1949 after losing the civil war with the communists and which became the main part of the Republic of China.
Fox News reports that a brief White House readout “of the subjects discussed during the Thursday bilateral meeting between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping,” apparently published only on the White House’s X account, “did not include any information about Taiwan.” According to the White House post, trade, oil, fentanyl, the Strait of Hormuz, and how “Both countries agreed that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon” were the subjects discussed.
Apparently, then, President Trump has not, at least not yet, changed the official U.S. position with respect to arms sales to Taipei or the ROC’s independence, two of the fears about the get-together.
Rubio
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who tends to be vaguer about the nature of the CCP threat now than he was as U.S. senator, said that “U.S. policy toward Taiwan is ‘unchanged’ after President Donald Trump’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping but warned it would be ‘a terrible mistake’ for China to take Taiwan by force” (Associated Press, May 14, 2026).
I’m not sure what the “but” is about. Has it not been U.S. policy up to now that it would be a terrible mistake for the PRC to (try to) take Taiwan by force?
Rubio said: “U.S. policy on the issue of Taiwan is unchanged as of today and as of the meeting that we had here today. It was raised. They always raise it on their side. We always make clear our position, and we move on to the other topics….
“[Xi has] made clear that what they call ‘reunification’—that’s what they call it—is something that has to happen at some point.
“We think it would be a terrible mistake to force that through force or anything of that nature,” Rubio said.
“There would be repercussions for that—globally, not just from the United States, and we kind of leave it there.”
Rubio seems to think that a “voluntary” “reunion” of the mainland with Taiwan, perhaps via a referendum decided by Taiwanese voters and CCP-spy voters, would be okay. It would not be okay. It would be a surrender to tyranny by the Taiwanese and/or would be the consequence of use of force by the CCP less open than that of a military invasion.
The qualifiers “as of today” and “as of the meeting” are a little worrisome. Perhaps they mean nothing; perhaps they mean that the secretary, even if he thinks it unlikely, is taking care to accommodate the possibility that the U.S. president will change U.S. policy on the issue of Taiwan tomorrow, and not in a good way.
