U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a maternal health care event in the Oval Office of the White House on Monday, May 11, 2026, in Washington, DC, U.S.
Aaron Schwartz | Bloomberg | getty images
President Donald Trump said Monday that US arms sales to Taiwan and the imprisonment of Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai will be on his agenda for a Beijing summit later this week.
Washington’s arms sales to Taiwan have been a point of contention between the two countries, with Beijing reacting sharply by accusing the US of violating the “one-China principle” and warning that efforts to “contain China” through Taipei are doomed to fail.
Asked about Washington’s longtime support for Taiwan’s defense, Trump said Monday, “I’m going to have a discussion with President Xi.” “President Xi wants us not to do that, and I will discuss that. That’s one of the many things I will talk about.”
This came as Beijing reportedly pressured the Trump administration to reduce its security commitments to the island.
Trump is expected to meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing on Thursday for talks on a wide-ranging agenda, with the Iran war, trade, rare earth export controls and Taiwan among the main issues.
trump administration Reportedly no progress has been made in the matter of arms delivery. A record $11 billion arms package for Taiwan was approved in December ahead of the presidential summit.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said in December, “By aiding Taiwan independence through arms sales, the US will only harm itself. Any attempt to use Taiwan to control China will fail.”
Last Friday, Taiwan lawmakers approved a special defense budget of $25 billion to buy missiles and other weapons from the US, far less than the $40 billion the government had sought to counter an increasingly aggressive Chinese military.
Bonnie Glaser, managing director of the Indo-Pacific program at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, said any rhetorical softening on Trump’s part, even vague, would be “the most destabilizing outcome” of the summit.
“A tacit or explicit bargain in which Washington appears to concede Beijing’s sphere of influence over Taiwan” in exchange for concessions elsewhere could encourage China to take more assertive steps to erode Taiwan’s autonomy, Glaser said.
China claims the democratically ruled island as its own territory – a claim that Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party rejects.
Chinese officials have described Taiwan as the “biggest point of risk” in bilateral relations with the US, and urged it to “keep its promise and make the right choice to open up new space for China-US cooperation”.
Lai’s release
Trump said he planned to advocate again for Lai’s release. In February, a Hong Kong court Lai was sentenced to 20 years in prison on charges of collusion with foreign powers.
“Jimmy Lai – he caused a lot of turmoil for China. He tried to do the right thing. He didn’t succeed, went to jail, and people would like to see him out, and I would like to see him out too,” Trump said On Monday. he had Earlier Lai’s release was called for In a meeting with Xi on the sidelines of the APEC summit in October last year.
Meanwhile, Beijing has blamed foreign governments and made it clear that Lai should be “severely punished in accordance with the law”. Interference in Hong Kong’s judicial system Process.
Lai, a pro-democracy advocate and founder of the now-defunct Apple Daily newspaper, was convicted in December of collusion with foreign forces, endangering national security and conspiracy to publish seditious material. The 78-year-old man has been in custody for more than five years while serving on different prison terms Fraud allegations.
The 20-year sentence was the longest given under the national security law introduced in 2020, surpassing the 10-year sentence given to activist Benny Tai, a former law professor, convicted in November 2024 of plotting to subvert state power.