North American President Donald Trump announced this Monday, October 20, that he will travel to China “early next year” to meet his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.
“I’ve been invited to go to China and I’ll probably go early next year. It’s pretty much all organized,” Trump told reporters, alongside Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who he received at the White House.
Trump is expected to meet Xi in person at the end of this month, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in South Korea, in what will be the first bilateral meeting since 2019.
The meeting was at risk due to tensions between the two countries due to controls announced by Beijing on the export of rare earths, as well as machines and technologies that allow their refinement and transformation.
In response, Trump threatened to increase tariffs on Beijing after what he described as an “extremely aggressive” decision by China.
Trump also expressed this Monday, on the same occasion and in the presence of journalists, doubts about a possible Chinese invasion of Taiwan.
“I think everything will go well with China. China doesn’t want to do that,” he said.
Also today, Taiwanese President William Lai stated that peace between China and Taiwan cannot be achieved “with a simple agreement”, in statements following the election of a new leader in the Kuomintang opposition party, which is in favor of dialogue with Beijing.
In a speech addressed to representatives of the Taiwanese diaspora, Lai argued that both he and his predecessor, Tsai Ing-wen (2016-2024), were committed to “strengthening national defense”, since “peace must be an ideal, but not an illusion”.
“Peace cannot be achieved through a simple agreement. Nor can peace be achieved by accepting China’s proposals, such as the so-called ‘1992 Consensus’ or the ‘one China’ principle,” he declared, referring to the tacit understanding between the KMT and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), according to which both recognize the existence of “one China”, albeit with different interpretations.
Taiwan has been governed autonomously since 1949, under the name of the Republic of China, and has a distinct armed force and political, economic and social system, standing out as one of the most advanced democracies in Asia.
However, Beijing considers the island an “inalienable part” of its territory and, in recent years, has intensified its pressure campaign to achieve so-called “national reunification”, the long-term objective of Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
The post Donald Trump announced he will visit China “early next year” appeared first on Veritas News.
