The administration of US President Donald Trump has told Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) “we don’t want any coercion, but we want [the Taiwan dispute] resolved peacefully,” US ambassador to China David Perdue said in a TV interview on Thursday.
Trump “has said very clearly, we are not changing the ‘one China’ policy, we are going to adhere to the Taiwan Relations Act, the three communiques and the ‘six assurances’ that were done under [former US president Ronald] Reagan,” Perdue told Joe Kernen, cohost of CNBC’s Squawk Box.
The act, the Three Joint Communiques and the “six assurances” are guidelines for Washington in dealing with its unofficial relationship with Taipei under its “one China” policy.
Photo: Screen grab from CNBC Television’s YouTube channel
The “six assurances” are guarantees that the US would not set a date for ending arms sales to Taiwan, hold prior consultations with China on weapons sales to Taiwan, play any mediation role between Taipei and Beijing, revise the Taiwan Relations Act, change its position regarding sovereignty over Taiwan, or exert pressure on Taiwan to negotiate with China.
A face-to-face meeting between Trump and Xi is “unlikely to happen before next year,” Perdue said.
Washington is “still trying” to arrange an in-person meeting between the two heads of state, and had gone “back and forth on the logistics,” he said.
“These are two great leaders who respect each other. They’ve gotten together many times before, they’ve already had three phone calls this year,” Perdue said. “These are two people in unique positions that want to do something great, and I think they want to do it together.”
The US wants to make the relationship — the “most consequential in our time” — less adversarial and “buy some time” to find a way to coexist, he said.
Trump is “the one president that I’ve seen in my lifetime [who] has the ability to hit him in the face, yet turn around, put an arm around him and really begin to negotiate,” Perdue said, referencing the TikTok deal and an upcoming Boeing aircraft deal.
Meanwhile, Squawk Box cohost Andrew Ross Sorkin quoted Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang’s (黃仁勳) comment last month that China is “nanoseconds behind” the US in chipmaking and artificial intelligence (AI) technology.
Perdue said that the US “is still in the lead” of the AI innovation race, but must maintain that lead against Chinese manufacturer Huawei Technologies Co (華為) by attracting and employing human capital to compete on the world stage.
He added that he hoped China would assist in the Ukraine conflict, and stop purchasing crude oil from Russia and Iran to aid in resolving global conflicts.
Perdue was appointed as ambassador to China in April. Since then, he said he has spoken face-to-face with Xi about the US’ tariff policies and US interests.
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