Trump says Xi knows 'how I feel' on Taiwan after summit

Courtney Subramanian, Bloomberg News on Sep 26, 2026

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

President Donald Trump said Saturday that the issue of Taiwan came up in meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping this week, as he refrained from repeating Washington’s decades-old stance on the self-governing island.

“We didn’t talk about it too much. Right now, it’s fine. It’s just moving along,” he told reporters when asked about Taiwan before departing the White House to attend a college football game. “We didn’t spend a lot of time talking about Taiwan. He understands very much how I feel.”

The president’s comments come after a Chinese readout of the bilateral meeting said Xi urged the U.S. to “oppose” Taiwan independence. While Trump didn’t restate the U.S.’s position, he also didn’t give any indication he’s willing to meet Xi’s demand to change it.

The U.S.’s official position is that it does not support Taiwanese independence and opposes any unilateral changes to the status quo by Beijing or Taipei. Xi’s call for for the U.S. to explicitly oppose independence would have likely sent shock waves through Taiwan if Trump adopted it.

Washington has a long-standing policy of strategic ambiguity over whether it would come to the aid of Taiwan if it is attacked by China, with Washington reserving the right to use force but never explicitly saying whether it would actually intervene.

Since coming to power in 2012, Xi has made bringing Taiwan under China’s control a key goal and vowed to achieve it someday, by force if necessary. As the Chinese leader heads toward an expected fourth term in office, he’s ramping up diplomatic pressure to isolate the democratic chip hub and block future weapons sales from Washington.

———

(With assistance from Nectar Gan.)