Has Trump dumped Taiwan for peace with Xi? Says it ‘never came up in talks’ in Busan

Following his meeting with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping , US President Donald Trump said that the Taiwan issue “never came up” during the talks, raising concerns over Washington’s abandonment of the island region.

Speaking aboard Air Force One, Trump said that the rare earth tussle between the two nations has been settled and that there will be no more roadblocks for them. However, when asked if the concerns over China’s growing assertiveness over Taiwan were ever raised, the American leader said that the region “didn’t come up during the meeting.”

Taiwan downplays abandonment

Before the talks , Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung had said it is “confident” in its relations with the US amid the Trump-Xi talks. When asked by reporters about the meeting and whether Taiwan could come up, the government said it was “of course” paying attention to the talks.

Taiwan and the US had close cooperation on security and other matters, he said in Taipei. “So we have confidence in Taiwan-US relations and have close communication channels,” Lin added, quoted by Reuters.

It is pertinent to note that Taiwan’s democratically elected government rejects Beijing’s claims of sovereignty. Since taking office this year, Trump has vacillated on his position towards Taiwan while pursuing a trade deal with Beijing. Trump has said in the past that Xi told him he would not invade Taiwan while the American leader is in office. However, Trump has yet to approve any new US arms sales to Taipei.

The Blackwell chip was also not discussed

While speaking to reporters, Trump said that he also did not discuss chipmaker Nvidia’s state-of-the-art Blackwell artificial intelligence chip during talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping. He was seen walking back the previous day’s remarks about potentially helping the company to export a scaled-down version of its current flagship GPU processor, a key component in the AI race.

However, Nvidia’s hopes to get approval from the United States and China to sell a scaled-down version of its most powerful AI chip yet took a hit from Trump’s comments on Thursday. “We’re not talking about Blackwell chips,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One, after leaving the meeting with Xi, their first since he returned to the White House.

With inputs from agencies.