Trump-Xi summit puts trade and Taiwan at center of tensions

Taiwan’s security and the fate of a $14 billion arms package overshadowed the fallout from Donald Trump’s Beijing summit, as U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Taiwan’s representative to Washington, Alexander Yui, took center stage on Face the Nation alongside questions about trade, rare earths and deterrence.

The timing mattered. The broadcast aired on Sunday, May 17, 2026, after Trump returned from China and after a high-stakes meeting with Xi Jinping in Beijing that pushed Taiwan to the center of U.S.-China tensions. Reuters reported that Xi warned Trump the Taiwan issue could lead to conflict if mishandled, a reminder that Taiwan is now being treated in Beijing not as a side issue but as a test of resolve in the broader relationship.

Greer arrived with deep trade credentials and a direct link to the first Trump-China tariff fight. He was confirmed by the Senate on February 27, 2025, as the 20th U.S. Trade Representative after serving as chief of staff to Robert Lighthizer, and he was closely involved in tariffs on China and the U.S.-China Phase One Agreement. His presence signaled that the administration still sees trade, not just security, as the main leverage point in the relationship with Beijing.

Yui brought the opposing perspective from Taipei. He has represented Taiwan in Washington since December 2023 and has more than 35 years of diplomatic experience. In the days before the broadcast, Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it would keep working with the United States to protect peace and stability, while calling China’s opposition to U.S. arms sales unreasonable. Reuters said Taiwan also thanked Washington on May 15 for reiterating that its Taiwan policy had not changed and for backing peace and stability.

That backdrop made Trump’s own stance on weapons sales especially consequential. The Associated Press reported that he was weighing whether to hold back a new Taiwan arms package, worth $14 billion, as leverage in talks with China. That uncertainty feeds directly into Taipei’s long-running concern that support for Taiwan could become bargaining material in a broader trade and security deal. CBS reported that Yui said Taiwan wants peace and stability and is not creating the trouble.

The rest of the program reinforced how the administration is trying to manage public concern as well as foreign policy risk. Anthony Salvanto’s latest CBS News polling on the economy appeared alongside interviews with former Defense Secretary Robert Gates and a panel with Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick and Tom Suozzi. The mix underscored the same political reality: Trump’s China strategy now sits at the intersection of economic anxiety, military deterrence and a volatile Taiwan question that neither side is close to resolving.