By Trevor Hunnicutt, Yimou Lee and Ben Blanchard
WASHINGTON, Sept 22 (Reuters) – China’s Xi Jinping is expected to press US President Donald Trump to halt Taiwan arms sales under a 1982 joint statement during a visit to Washington this week, which he could do at the US National Archives, sources briefed on the matter said.
China regularly describes the issue of Taiwan, which Beijing views as its own territory, as its most sensitive and important diplomatic issue and has repeatedly called for arms sales to stop.
The US is bound by law to provide democratically-governed Taiwan with the means to defend itself, despite the lack of formal diplomatic relations. Taiwan’s government rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims.
Three sources familiar with discussions between the US and China ahead of Xi going to Washington this week for a summit with Trump told Reuters that China is likely to bring up its interpretation of the third of the three “joint communiques” between the two countries, signed in 1982.
Under that, the US said that it intends to gradually reduce its arms sales to Taiwan and does not seek long-term weapons sales to Taipei.
However, in an accompanying memo, then-US President Ronald Reagan said US willingness to reduce arms sales is “conditioned absolutely upon the continued commitment of China to the peaceful solution” of differences with Taiwan.
China has sharply stepped up its military activities around Taiwan over the past five years, including staging war games with live missile tests. Its armed forces operate around Taiwan on an almost daily basis.
China’s foreign ministry did not respond to a request for comment. China’s official People’s Daily on Tuesday said if the Taiwan issue was handled poorly it could push China-US ties “toward a very dangerous situation.”
Xi arrives in Washington on Wednesday, with formal talks talking place on Thursday and the archives visit on Friday.
A White House official said that Trump has said he will make a determination on the new arms sales package in a fairly short time.
In his first term, Trump approved more arms sales to Taiwan than any other president in history, and in his second term, he approved more in his first year than all four years under President Joe Biden, the official added.
Taiwan’s foreign ministry said it continues to closely track developments in US-China high-level exchanges while maintaining “robust communication” with the US.
ARMS DELIVERIES
The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity citing the sensitivity of the matter, said China has also asked for the US to stop deliveries of arms already ordered by Taiwan.
Xi could “emphasize to Trump that Taiwan is the provocateur and the sole source of instability in US-China relations, and that Taiwan is the one changing the status quo,” one of the sources said.
In return, China is offering help to put pressure on Iran over the war in the Middle East, the sources added.
The US follows a “one China policy” under which it officially takes no position on Taiwan’s sovereignty and acknowledges, but does not endorse, Beijing’s position that Taiwan is part of China.
The Trump administration in December approved an $11 billion arms sales package to Taiwan, the largest ever. However, a second package, worth some $14 billion, has been on hold for months.
After a May summit in Beijing with Xi, Trump said he was holding it in abeyance and described it as a “very good negotiating chip”.
XI EXPECTED TO ‘LECTURE’ TRUMP ON TAIWAN
Under the “Six Assurances” for Taiwan, also issued in 1982 but only declassified in 2020, the US has not set a date for ending arms sales to Taiwan, nor agreed to prior consultation with Beijing on such sales.
Senior US Republican figures have been expressing their support for Taiwan ahead of the summit.
US Senator Pete Ricketts, Republican chair of the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on East Asia, told an event at the Hudson Institute last week that Trump should take a firm line on Taiwan and make clear that US policy on Taiwan remained unchanged.
“We need to continue just to again let them know that they’re not going to be allowed to take Taiwan by force. That we are not changing our position on that. We’re continuing to support Taiwan,” he said.
In a letter to Trump on Friday, John Moolenaar, Republican chairman of the House Select Committee on China, wrote in a reference to Taiwan and US allies in Asia that Chinese objections to US arms sales and security cooperation should be “rejected out of hand.”
Speaking at a defense forum in Taipei on Saturday, Matt Pottinger, the deputy national security adviser in Trump’s first administration, said he did not expect anything “substantive” on Taiwan during this week’s meetings.
“I would bet that Xi Jinping is going to lecture at length President Trump on Taiwan as he has in the last meetings and as he has with other presidents,” he said.
(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt in Washington and Yimou Lee and Ben Blanchard in Taipei; Additional reporting by David Brunnstrom in Washington, and Beijing newsroom; Editing by Michael Perry)
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