Trump disclosed fresh details of his talks with Xi Jinping, including discussions on Taiwan tensions, AI safeguards, Iran and a major Boeing aircraft deal.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump during meetings in China that focused on Taiwan, Iran, trade and artificial intelligence. (Photo: X/@WhiteHouse)
US President Donald Trump has claimed that Chinese President Xi Jinping strongly opposed any move towards Taiwan’s independence during their recent talks, while also signalling that Washington could reconsider future arms sales to the island.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One while travelling to Anchorage, Alaska, Trump described his discussions with Xi as “very historic” and said the two sides had reached “a very good understanding” on several sensitive global issues, including Taiwan, Iran, artificial intelligence, and trade.
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The remarks come at a time when tensions between Washington and Beijing remain high over Taiwan, technology competition and military influence in the Indo-Pacific. Taiwan continues to be among the most contentious flashpoints in US-China ties, with Beijing repeatedly warning against any foreign support for the self-ruled island.
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“President Xi and I talked a lot about Taiwan,” Trump said. “He does not want to see a fight for independence because that would be a very strong confrontation.”
Trump said Xi raised concerns over American arms supplies to Taiwan and questioned whether the United States would intervene militarily if a conflict broke out in the region.
“He asked me if I’d defend them. I said, I don’t talk about that,” Trump told reporters.
When asked separately whether the US would defend Taiwan, Trump avoided giving a direct answer.
“I don’t want to say that. There’s only one person who knows that. You know who it is, me,” he said.
The US President also indicated that his administration may soon take a call on future weapons sales to Taiwan.
“I’ll make a determination over the next fairly short period of time,” he added.
Trump said Washington and Beijing also explored the possibility of cooperation on safeguards for artificial intelligence technologies, particularly around security and military risks.
“We talked about possibly working together for guardrails,” he said. “AI is fantastic. So many things can happen in terms of health and medicine and operations, everything, the military.”
He added that discussions touched on cyber threats, biological risks and the broader implications of rapidly advancing AI systems.
Trump also acknowledged that cyber espionage between the two countries had been openly discussed.
“We spy like hell on them, too,” he said in response to questions about Chinese espionage activities in the United States.
On trade, Trump claimed China had agreed to a major aircraft purchase deal involving Boeing and General Electric.
“We had a great stay. It was an amazing period of time,” Trump said. “Made a lot of great trade deals, including over 200 planes from Boeing, with a promise of 750 planes.”
The President further said Xi agreed that Iran should not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons and supported reopening the Strait of Hormuz, a critical oil shipping route in West Asia.
“He feels strongly they can’t have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said.
Trump also reiterated that recent US military operations had severely damaged Iran’s military capabilities.
“We had a total military victory. We knocked out their entire navy. We knocked out their entire air force,” he said.
The President additionally revealed that denuclearisation talks involving China, Russia and the United States had been discussed during the meetings.
“We brought it up, the denuclearisation,” Trump said. “The concept of that is something that would be very good.”
The comments were made after Trump concluded his multi-day visit to China, where the two leaders held extensive discussions amid continuing geopolitical rivalry between the world’s two largest economies.
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