JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
President Trump is headed to China at the end of the month. One of the main topics for discussion is Taiwan. China sees Taiwan as its own territory, and the U.S. is Taiwan's most important security guarantor. But Trump has given mixed signals on how much he wants the U.S. to support Taiwan.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Taiwan came in. They stole our chip business.
SUMMERS: A few weeks ago, he made that comment about Taiwan's advanced semiconductor industry. Now, NPR's Emily Feng reports the U.S. has also been waffling on billions of dollars' worth of weapon sales to Taiwan.
EMILY FENG, BYLINE: When the U.S. broke off diplomatic relations with Taiwan in 1979, Congress passed a law requiring the U.S. to provide Taiwan with defensive arms, which has meant billions of dollars of weapon sales to Taiwan over the decades. China has protested every sale.
MIRA RAPP-HOOPER: Taiwan is the biggest issue for the PRC, full stop.
FENG: This is Mira Rapp-Hooper, a former senior director on the National Security Council during the Biden administration.
RAPP-HOOPER: And on a bipartisan basis, that has always been the case before, that U.S. administrations have done their best to manage Chinese anger about those arms sales but have gone ahead and done them anyway.
FENG: But as Trump prepares for a visit to China in March, two weapons packages have been delayed due to concerns about angering China. These packages are worth up to $14 billion. They include missiles and missile defense technology, according to a person directly involved in preparing the sales but who is not allowed to talk publicly about them. The two weapons packages, according to the person, have been months in the making. They were requested by Taiwan and cleared by U.S. officials earlier this year. The last step is to notify Congress of the sales, which has not happened, the person said. Asked about the delayed sales to Taiwan in February, Trump said he was talking to China's leader, Xi Jinping, about the weapons packages...
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TRUMP: Talking to him about it. We had a good conversation, and we'll make a determination pretty soon.
FENG: ...And said he had a good relationship with Xi Jinping. Rapp-Hooper says letting Beijing weigh in on American decisions regarding Taiwan is a slippery slope.
RAPP-HOOPER: China might increasingly use that coercive leverage to try to push off U.S. arm sales packages to Taiwan more and more.
FENG: Raymond Kuo, a political scientist at RAND Corporation, a nonpartisan think tank which advises government officials, says U.S. policy with Taiwan has become more transactional, which is why when Trump goes to Beijing, Kuo says Taiwan fears Beijing could offer trade compromises like...
RAYMOND KUO: Increased Chinese purchases of U.S. goods, continued supply of rare earths, semiconductors - all of this is, I think, being tied up. And there's a concern in Taiwan again that they're, you know - that they may have their interests sold out in favor of this.
FENG: Sold out, meaning Taiwan is concerned the U.S. might stop arming Taiwan or make a commitment not to defend Taiwan should China decide to invade, all in exchange for an economic deal with China. Security-wise, the U.S. has far closer ties with Taiwan than China. And this past December, American trade with Taiwan actually exceeded that with China. But Ryan Hass, a director at think tank Brookings Institution, says how Taiwan has been framed by the Trump administration is rapidly changing.
RYAN HASS: Taiwan is no longer viewed as a like-minded partner.
FENG: Instead...
HASS: The story that you hear about Taiwan is that Taiwan is a massive liability that needs to be moved off of America's strategic balance sheet as quickly as possible.
FENG: The U.S. official National Defense Strategy, out just this year, still emphasizes the U.S. should deter China from dominating the Indo-Pacific, including Taiwan. But how the U.S. goes about doing so is in flux. Emily Feng, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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