Donald Trump Meets Chinese President Xi Jinping: Taiwan's Deepening Fears

Donald Trump met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing this Thursday. It’s a summit that everyone is watching, not just because of the big players, but because of how much Taiwan is watching.

Taiwanese officials keep putting out public assurances about their relationship with Washington. They sound confident. But behind the scenes, the worries are still there. They wonder if Trump can actually offer Xi anything concrete on Taiwan, especially when the US is trying to get China to cooperate on the whole mess—the Iran conflict, all that instability swirling around.

The whole setup is tricky. Under that old "One China" idea, the US just accepts China’s view that Taiwan belongs to China. But they haven’t officially acknowledged Beijing’s total control over the island. Still, Washington has these deep, unofficial ties with Taipei. And the Taiwan Relations Act legally forces the US to make sure Taiwan has the means to defend itself. That’s the baseline.

But the US has always played this game of strategic ambiguity. They deliberately avoid saying outright whether they’d jump in militarily if China attacked. That silence is heavy.

Why is this so scary for Taiwan?

It starts with what Trump said before the meeting. On Monday, the President claimed he’d discuss US arms sales to Taiwan with Xi. “I’m going to have that discussion,” he told reporters. “President Xi would like us not to. And I’ll have that discussion.”

That remark just kicked up fresh anxiety. Because the US hasn't actually moved forward with that massive arms package for Taiwan, the one rumored to be worth about fourteen billion dollars. Beijing, of course, has always pushed back hard against American arms sales to the island.

Before the summit, a bunch of US senators actually pushed Trump. They wrote a letter urging him not to mess with Washington’s stance. They basically said, “You need to make it clear to Beijing that when you try to even out the economic playing field, American support for Taiwan isn't up for negotiation.”

US officials also raised this concern. They worried Xi might try to pull concessions from Trump during the talks. Think criticism of Taiwan’s leadership. Or maybe just slowing down future arms sales.

One former senior official told CNN that even just deciding not to move forward with a huge future arms deal would send a massive signal to Taipei.

That fear comes from a few places. It’s partly about Trump’s whole style of negotiation, and partly about China’s current grip. Beijing sees that China has some leverage over Washington right now. They point to the ongoing conflict involving Iran, and the wider global mess, as something that might actually strengthen China’s position when dealing with the US.

For Xi, Taiwan is just one of the most sensitive, long-term strategic issues. The Communist Party insists Taiwan is theirs, even though they never governed the island. Xi has kept repeating that reunification is "unstoppable." He hasn't ruled out force.

The Taiwan-Chip Issue

Then there’s the whole Taiwan-chip thing. It’s not just geography. Taiwan makes almost ninety percent of the world’s most advanced semiconductors. It’s the engine powering AI, advanced electronics, and defense systems globally. It’s what some are calling Taiwan’s "silicon shield." The idea is that because the island is so critical to global chip production, major powers hesitate to let instability or conflict there happen.

But now, Taiwan is terrified that these very chips could get sucked into the bigger US-China negotiations.

Analysts are pointing out that there are already cracks showing in this system. They worry that using semiconductor restrictions as a tool for bargaining just ends up making China stronger, while weakening Taiwan’s security and messing up US strategy.

Yet, not everyone thinks the US is going to just ditch Taiwan. Prashant Kumar Singh, a research fellow, argues that Taiwan is just too valuable for Washington to casually trade away. It’s too much of a bargaining chip, too much of a pressure point to be thrown away for some short-term tactical win.

Piero Tozzi, looking at the America First Policy Institute, said Trump actually understands how much Taiwan means. He claimed it’s the frontline of American defense, the defense of the homeland. He sounded pretty sure that the Taiwanese wouldn't have much to worry about.

Reliance on America

But can Taiwan really rely entirely on America?

Even with all the public confidence, they are trying to fix their own weaknesses. A big focus is boosting their domestic defense production. Drones are a big one. They’re also pouring money into what they call "whole-of-society resilience." Improving civil defense, getting infrastructure ready, making sure supply chains hold up.

Still, the officials know, deep down, no single country can replace America in that defense ecosystem. The US is still the main supplier of arms, sharing intelligence, surveillance, and that broader strategic support that is absolutely vital for planning defense. They maintain constant military-level communication with the US Indo-Pacific Command. That channel feels a little insulated from whatever political drama is happening in Washington.

But things are shifting. There are new worries bubbling up about America’s own military readiness. CNN had already reported that the US military is running low on some key ammunition, just in case another big conflict breaks out.

A new look from the Center for Strategic and International Studies suggests that the remaining stock of certain critical munitions might not even be enough for a real fight against China. And filling that gap? That could take years.

Meanwhile, China just keeps drilling around the island. Constant military exercises. That just feeds Taipei’s anxiety about potential coercion or escalation down the road.

There’s no sign of an immediate Chinese military move. But for Taiwan, the real fear about this Trump-Xi dance isn't some sudden abandonment by Washington.

It’s the creeping feeling that American support might just get weaker. More conditional. More transactional. That’s the slow slide they are worried about.