Donald Trump has warned Taiwan not to declare independence from China following the two-day summit in Beijing this week. The US President told Fox News on Friday that he’s ‘not looking to have somebody go independent’. He said: ‘We’re supposed to travel 9,500 miles (15,289km) to fight a war. I’m not looking for that. I want them to cool down. I want China to cool down.
‘We’re not looking to have wars, and if you kept it the way it is, I think China’s going to be okay with that.’ Mr Trump also told reporters during his flight back to Washington that he had spoken to Chinese president Xi Jinping about Taiwan ‘a lot’ during the summit. But he said he had declined to answer questions about whether the US would intervene to defend the island nation in the event that China invaded. Mr Trump’s warning came despite Taiwan, a democracy, demanding for the US to keep supplying it with weapons to defend itself. He added that Xi ‘feels very strongly’ about China’s claim over the territory and ‘doesn’t want to see a movement for independence’.
