U.S. Taiwan policy unchanged after Trump-Xi summit in Beijing: Rubio

Taipei, May 14 (CNA) U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Thursday in Beijing that U.S. policy on Taiwan has not changed, following the summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平).

"U.S. policy on the issue of Taiwan is unchanged as of today and as of the meeting that we had here today," Rubio said during an interview with NBC News after the summit, which was held in Beijing on Thursday morning.

Rubio said that Beijing had raised the Taiwan issue and that "we always make clear our position, and we move on to the other topics."

The U.S always responds by saying "anything that would compel or force a change in what we have now would be problematic, and that our policies on that have not changed," he said.

Asked whether Xi had requested that Trump stop selling weapons to Taiwan, Rubio said the issue had been discussed in the past, but it "did not feature prominently in Thursday's discussion."

Rubio went on to say that U.S. arms sales to Taiwan are decisions "the president gets to make," and that the U.S. Congress also plays a role in the process.

The summit marked the first visit by a U.S. president to China in nearly a decade, following Trump's last trip in 2017 during his first term.

According to Chinese state media reports, Xi told Trump that the Taiwan question "is the most important issue in China-U.S. relations."

"If it is handled properly, the bilateral relationship will enjoy overall stability. Otherwise, the two countries will have clashes and even conflicts, putting the entire relationship in great jeopardy," Xi was quoted as saying in a Xinhua News Agency report.

A readout of the talks released by the White House made no mention of Taiwan.

During the NBC interview, Rubio was also asked whether he thinks China wants to invade Taiwan, to which he replied, "I think China's preference is probably to have Taiwan willingly, voluntarily join them."

"In a perfect world, what they would want is some vote or a referendum in Taiwan that agrees to fold in. I think that's what they would prefer," he said.

Rubio then reiterated that it would be a terrible mistake for China to pursue what it calls "reunification" by force or through any coercive means. "There would be repercussions for that globally, not just for the United States."