Xi Jinping, the Chinese dictator, hopes that the U.S. will further weaken its already weak and incoherent (“strategically ambiguous”) formal diplomatic position on the Republic of China. This is not news. But the Chinese dictator repeated his request in DC, if the CCP’s reporting on the Trump-Xi meetings is accurate. Taipei, rightly, objects (Reuters, September 25, 2026).
Taiwan denounced Xi Jinping’s comments to Donald Trump on the island’s future on Friday after the Chinese leader appeared to push the US President for a subtle change in stance that could erode US support for the democratically governed island.
Xi told Trump in Washington on Thursday that he hoped the US would adhere to the “correct position” of opposing Taiwan independence, according to a Chinese readout of the talks.
That would be a tougher version of Washington’s long-standing formulation that it does not “support” independence. There was no immediate White House readout of the exchange.
China claims Taiwan as its own territory, a position the island’s government rejects.
And a position that any news report should reject, since the Republic of China of which Taiwan is a part is not a territory of the People’s Republic of China.
While there are no immediate signs that the Trump administration plans to acquiesce to Xi’s request, the repercussions of that nuanced word change would be far-reaching.
China may use the threat of Taiwanese independence or agitation for independence as a pretext for conflict, and remind the US that it has staked its opposition to those actions.
President Trump has already come perilously close to submitting to Xi’s urging. In May 2026, he “warn[ed] Taiwan against declaring independence, hours after summit with China’s Xi.”
Not one of the U.S. president’s wiser statements. But the BBC headline slightly misses the mark. “I’m not looking to have somebody go independent,” is what he said at the time.
An assertion that a country might “go independent” implies that the country is not a country, not already independent. (Just as the Reuters talk of “the threat of Taiwanese independence or agitation for independence” implies that the ROC is not already independent.) The Republic of China governs itself. It’s independent. Beijing is not governing the ROC. It wants to. Wishing does not make it so.
