Taiwan urges peace after Trump-Xi summit, warns of China pressure

Taiwan’s top representative in Washington used the aftermath of Donald Trump’s summit with Xi Jinping to press a familiar but sharpened message: Taipei wants calm, while Beijing is the side driving escalation.

Alexander Yui said on CBS News’ Face the Nation that Taiwan wanted “peace and stability” and that its people wanted life to continue as usual. “We’re not the ones creating all this trouble,” he said, arguing that the dispute has run for 77 years, back to 1949 and the founding of the People’s Republic of China. Yui said he was trying to tell Trump “the Taiwan story” from Taipei’s point of view.

The comments came after Trump’s two-day meeting with Xi in Beijing, where Xi warned that mishandling Taiwan could lead to conflict and even clashes between the United States and China. Taiwan officials said nothing surprising emerged from the summit, but they renewed their warning that China’s military pressure, not Taiwan’s conduct, is the real threat to peace.

Yui said he appreciated Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio publicly stating that U.S. policy on Taiwan had not changed. That reassurance matters in Taipei, where leaders have been watching for signs that Washington might alter the long-standing framework that underpins U.S. arms sales and political support without formal diplomatic recognition.

Ahead of the summit, Yui told Fox News that peace in the Taiwan Strait benefits Taiwan, the United States, Japan and China, and that a conflict would severely disrupt global trade and regional stability. He said Taiwan’s arms purchases are meant to counter Chinese provocations, and he pointed to the Taiwan Relations Act and Ronald Reagan’s 1982 six assurances as the basis for U.S. arms sales.

The message from Taipei was careful but pointed: Taiwan wants to present itself as the status-quo actor, not the source of danger. By stressing dialogue from a position of strength and mutual respect, Yui signaled that Taipei still sees diplomacy as possible, but only if Beijing reduces pressure and Washington keeps deterrence credible.