Taiwan calls Xi’s reunification remarks a distortion as Washington says nothing has changed

Xi Jinping told Trump in Washington on Thursday that China’s position on safeguarding national “reunification” and territorial integrity is clear, and urged the United States to oppose Taiwan independence^2,4. Taiwan denounced the comments as a distortion of facts^1,5.

Taipei officials labelled China a “true disruptor” of the status quo². Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council said Xi’s remarks in the United States distorted the history of the Second World War, and that the root cause of tensions in the Taiwan Strait lies in increasingly aggressive expansionist actions by Beijing¹². Reuters reported that Taiwan cried foul after Xi pressed Trump to change his stance on the island³.

Washington’s account was flatter. David Perdue, the US ambassador to China, said: “We’re not changing our position there. We want peace across the [Taiwan] Strait. We don’t want coercion. We don’t support independence”⁷. Perdue added that Washington wants to maintain peace in the strait and does not support the island’s independence or the use of force⁸. Trump said the Taiwan issue was raised during his meetings with Xi⁸.

Why it matters to investors

For anyone holding semiconductor exposure, the summit produced no change in the declared positions of either capital, which is neither the escalation nor the de-escalation markets were positioned for^1,7. A Taipei official said after the summit that arming Taiwan remains an important US interest⁹.

The military tempo continued through the diplomacy. Taiwan tracked five military aircraft and eleven Chinese ships in the period to Saturday morning, with one People’s Liberation Army aircraft crossing the Taiwan Strait median line in the northern air defence identification zone¹⁰. At the United Nations General Assembly, the Marshall Islands and Tuvalu voiced support for Taiwan, with one speaker saying such activity threatened stability across the strait, disrupted international transportation and trade, and put peace and security at risk¹¹.

What to watch

The near-term question is whether Beijing treats Washington’s restated formula as sufficient or presses further, given that Xi asked the United States to oppose independence rather than merely not support it^2,6.

The second is whether median-line crossings and ship counts settle back to their pre-summit pattern or keep rising¹⁰. Taipei’s own framing, that it is Beijing and not Taiwan changing the status quo, is the line it will take to the countries that backed it at the General Assembly^11,12.