Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) today said he was not worried that US President Donald Trump would "abandon" Taiwan in his meeting this week with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in South Korea.
Since taking office earlier this year, Trump has vacillated on his position toward Taiwan, as he seeks to strike a trade deal with Beijing.
Trump says Xi has told him he would not invade while the Republican president is in office, but Trump has yet to approve any new US arms sales to Taipei.
Screenshot from Liberty Times Net video
The fear in Taipei is that the Trump-Xi meeting this week in South Korea on the sidelines of the APEC summit could see some sort of “selling out” of Taiwan's interests by Trump to Xi.
Asked whether he was worried Trump would “abandon” Taiwan at the Xi talks, Lin told reporters in Taipei: "No, because our Taiwan-US relations are very stable."
"No matter whether on security, trade and business and other areas, there is close cooperation," he added.
The APEC forum is one of the few international groupings that Taiwan takes part in, although it does not send its president to avoid political problems with China.
Speaking at the airport before leaving for South Korea, Taiwan's APEC representative, former minister of economic affairs Lin Hsin-i (林信義), said the summit was a good opportunity for "equal interactions" with other members attending.
In a commentary today, China's official Xinhua news agency lambasted “separatists,” but said the “situation will only become increasingly favorable for the just cause of supporting reunification.”
Both sides can sit down and negotiate a "reasonable 'one country, two systems' solution" for Taiwan, which will respect Taiwan's existing social system, it added.
Taiwan's government says Beijing has no right to claim or speak for Taiwan internationally, and that only Taiwanese can decide their own future.
Also today, police in the Chinese city of Chongqing said they had opened a probe into Legislator Puma Shen (沈伯洋), from the Democratic Progressive Party, for engaging in "separatist" activity, although China's legal system has no jurisdiction in Taiwan.
Shen said he believed this was the fifth or sixth time China had sanctioned him, but this time it was raising the possibility of making "arrests extraterritorially in the future."
"This intimidation tactic and lawfare approach represents China's current overt strategy against Taiwan. This is not targeting me personally — it is meant as a warning to others," he said in a statement.
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