Taiwan policy unlikely to shift as Trump-Xi talks focus on trade: Scholars

Washington, June 5 (CNA) The latest phone conversation between U.S. President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping (習近平) focused largely on easing bilateral trade tensions and is unlikely to lead to a major shift in Washington's Taiwan policy, analysts said.

Richard Bush, former chairman of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), told CNA via email that the talks on Thursday were primarily aimed at preventing U.S.-China relations from getting worse, particularly after the United States imposed export controls shortly after the "Geneva understanding."

Bush, who is currently a nonresident senior fellow at the Washington-based think tank Brookings Institution, said both sides were trying to "get back to where things were at the end of Geneva" through the call.

Washington and Beijing reached a temporary deal during talks held in Geneva, Switzerland in May, which led to a 90-day truce on sweeping tariffs they had previously imposed on each other.

China later said the U.S. violated the deal by banning semiconductor sales to the Chinese tech giant Huawei while Washington continued to complain about Beijing's export controls on rare earth minerals and magnets.

As for Taiwan, Bush said Xi routinely brought up Taiwan in conversations with U.S. presidents, but that segment was likely brief in the latest call, given that the two had a host of pressing trade issues to address.

Meanwhile, Ryan Hass, also an analyst from the Brookings, told CNA that he "do[es] not expect that the presidential phone call will result in any major shifts in American policy toward Taiwan."

Hass served as the director for China, Taiwan and Mongolia at the National Security Council staff from 2013 to 2017.

He pointed to the readout of the call issued by Beijing and said Trump's response to Xi's concern over Taiwan "signaled continuity in longstanding American policy."

According to the readout, Xi urged the U.S. to "handle the Taiwan question with prudence" and prevent "Taiwan independence" forces from "drag[ging] China and America into the dangerous terrain of confrontation and even conflict."

The readout cited Trump as saying that "he has great respect for President Xi ... The U.S. will honor the one-China policy."

As of press time, the White House had not issued a readout on its side and Trump's social media post about the talks did not mention Taiwan.

According to Trump, the conversation "focused almost entirely on trade" and did not touch upon Russia and Ukraine, or Iran.

Commenting on the call, the first between the two leaders since Trump began his second term in January, Taiwan's Presidential Office said in a brief statement on Friday (Taipei time) that it welcomed any "efforts that help stabilize the regional situation and curb authoritarian expansion."