US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping visit the Zhongnanhai Garden in Beijing, China on May 15, 2026.
China Pool | Getty Images News | getty images
President Donald Trump said Friday that when asked whether the United States would defend Taiwan if China attacked him, he declined to answer directly to Chinese President Xi Jinping.
“I was asked that question today,” Trump told reporters. air force one when they flew back to the United States from a two-day summit in Beijing.
The President said, “President Xi asked me this question today. I said I don’t talk about this.”
Trump’s comments came in response to a reporter who asked whether the US would defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese attack.
Trump responded, “I don’t want to say that.”
“There’s only one person who knows this. You know who it is? Me. I’m the only person,” he said, before adding that Xi had asked him the same question before.
When the summit began, Xi bluntly warned Trump that there would be “fights and even conflicts” between the US and China if the long-standing issue of Taiwan independence was mishandled.
According to Chinese state news outlets, Xi told his US counterpart that if the issue was not handled “properly” it could put “the entire relationship” between their two countries in “great danger”. Xinhua told On Thursday.
Xi told Trump that the “Taiwan question” is “the most important issue in China-US relations”, Xinhua reported.