President Donald Trump wrapped his Beijing summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Friday by telling reporters the last thing the US needs is “a war that’s 9,500 miles away,” a comment that has Washington asking whether decades of Taiwan policy just shifted on Air Force One.
Speaking to reporters on the flight home, Trump revealed Xi had asked him directly whether the US would defend Taiwan. Trump’s answer: “There’s only one person that knows that, you know who it is? Me, I’m the only person.”
He added that he made “no commitment either way” on Taiwan, before pivoting to the 9,500-mile line.
Is This A Break From US Taiwan Policy?
The official US doctrine is “strategic ambiguity,” which means the US deliberately does not say whether it would defend Taiwan, with the vagueness itself acting as deterrent.
Trump’s “only I know” line may actually hew closer to that doctrine than former President Joe Biden, who said four separate times the US would …
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