TAIPEI, Taiwan — Taiwan's government on Thursday publicly thanked the United States for its support and said it remains in close contact with Washington ahead of President Donald Trump's summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping — a carefully choreographed show of confidence delivered just as Beijing reiterated that Taiwan is a “red line” the United States must not cross, and with a roughly $14 billion American arms package for the island frozen in political limbo.
Why this matters: a thank-you note aimed at three capitals
On the surface, it is diplomatic courtesy — the kind of thing governments say every day. Look closer, and Thursday's statement from Taipei is one of the most revealing documents of the entire Trump-Xi summit week, because it was written for three audiences at once. For Washington, it is reassurance and a gentle reminder: we are the cooperative partner; do not trade us away. For Beijing, it is defiance wrapped in politeness: we are not going anywhere, and our American relationship is intact. For the domestic audience in Taiwan, it is the Lai government demonstrating that it has the most important bilateral relationship in its foreign policy under control — hours before two superpower leaders meet to discuss its fate without it in the room.
The deeper significance is what the statement does not protest. A sitting American president has openly described weapons for a democratic partner as a “negotiating chip” — and Taipei's response is gratitude, not alarm. That asymmetry tells you everything about the power dynamics heading into Thursday's summit. This is what “strategic ambiguity” looks like under maximum strain: performing calm while your deterrence shopping list is being used as a poker chip in someone else's trade negotiation.
What Taipei actually said
Speaking at her regular Thursday news conference, cabinet spokesperson Michelle Lee said the government had been continuously monitoring developments around the Trump-Xi meeting. “Regarding all efforts conducive to stabilising the regional situation and managing the risks that authoritarian expansion might bring, we view them positively and continue to cooperate with the US at various levels,” Lee said. “In fact, we continue to maintain close contact with the US to stay informed of relevant developments,” she added, saying Washington had repeatedly reaffirmed its firm and clear position of support for Taiwan. “Regarding the long-standing support the US has provided to our country at various levels, we express our gratitude.”
Note the language. “Authoritarian expansion” is unusually pointed phrasing for Taipei's normally cautious official statements — a direct moral framing of Beijing. And “stabilising the regional situation” casts Taiwan not as a flashpoint but as a force for stability, a framing designed to resonate in Washington, Tokyo, and other capitals watching the summit.
Beijing's red line — and what Xi wants from Thursday
China claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, and on Wednesday it reiterated that the topic is a “red line” the United States must not cross. According to sources briefed on the matter who spoke to Reuters, Xi is expected to press Trump to halt Taiwan arms sales altogether during his visit to Washington. Xi arrived in the US capital on Wednesday evening ahead of Thursday's summit at the White House.
The arms issue was already sensitive before Xi's plane landed. Earlier this month, a report that Beijing had threatened to scrap the summit over US arms sales to Taiwan was publicly disputed by a senior American official — a denial that, paradoxically, confirmed how central the weapons question is to the entire visit. Taiwan is the one agenda item where symbolism and substance collide: for Beijing it is sovereignty; for Washington it is leverage; for Taipei it is survival.
The $11 billion and the $14 billion: what the numbers actually mean
In December, the Trump administration approved an arms package for Taiwan worth about $11 billion — the largest ever approved for the island, notified to Congress at roughly $11.1 billion according to Defense Security Cooperation Agency records. A second package, worth some $14 billion, has been held up for months: Congress had previously approved the sales, but the administration had not formally notified them, prompting a bipartisan letter from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in May urging Trump to move forward.
Then came the May summit in Beijing. Afterward, Trump said he was holding that second package “in abeyance” and described it, in a May 15 Fox News interview, as a “very good negotiating chip.” Asked about Taiwan arms sales by reporters in New York on Wednesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the administration had to “balance broader needs.”
Put the figures together and the scale is unprecedented: the pending $14 billion package is more than a quarter larger than the record $11 billion one, and the two combined would represent roughly $25 billion in American weapons flowing to Taiwan — a pipeline with no historical precedent. But the numbers also reveal the logic of the freeze. A $14 billion package is worth more to Trump un-delivered than delivered: as long as it sits on the table, it is leverage over both Beijing (which wants it killed) and Taipei (which needs it alive). For Taiwan, though, every month of delay is a month added to delivery timelines that already stretch years into the future. Deterrence, unlike leverage, is a wasting asset.
How Taiwan's defense became a bargaining chip: the backstory
The legal foundation is the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act, which obligates the United States to provide Taiwan with defensive arms — the bedrock of Washington's “strategic ambiguity,” the deliberate refusal to say exactly what America would do if China attacked. For decades, arms packages moved through this framework with bipartisan support and relatively little drama: notified to Congress, delivered over years, protested by Beijing, absorbed by the relationship.
What is new is the transactional framing. Trump has long spoken about Taiwan in commercial terms — suggesting during his first term that the island should pay more for its defense — but parking a congressionally blessed $14 billion package as explicit summit leverage goes further. It converts a security commitment into a trade-war instrument, and it does so in public. Previous administrations kept whatever linkage existed behind closed doors; Trump announced his on cable news.
Who wins, who loses — and what the critics say
If the freeze holds, Beijing wins twice: it gets the halt in arms sales it has demanded without conceding anything in return, and it learns that pressure on Washington works. Trump wins leverage for the trade talks dominating Thursday's summit, where a truce extension and tariff relief are the headline prizes. Taipei, meanwhile, absorbs the cost: delayed deterrence, and the quiet humiliation of a gratitude strategy — thanking the very administration that is using its defense as currency.
American defense firms waiting on $14 billion in contracts lose, as do the credibility ledgers in Tokyo, Seoul, and Manila, where allies are watching closely to see whether US security commitments survive contact with a trade negotiation. The sharpest criticism comes from Taiwan's supporters in Washington. “If we're not going to make arms available precisely because of pressure that Xi Jinping himself brought to bear, that's kind of like asking the wolf if you should lock the chicken pen at night,” said Jonathan Fritz, a senior fellow for China policy at the Center for American Progress and a former senior State Department official focused on China. “The wolf's going to say no.”
The counter-argument deserves a hearing too. A short freeze that buys a stable US-China relationship — a trade truce extended, tariffs eased, a catastrophic economic rupture avoided — arguably serves Taiwan as well as anyone. A global trade meltdown helps no one in Taipei, and some analysts argue that strategic patience now could yield a larger, more durable arms pipeline later. The question is whether patience is a strategy or just a synonym for being traded away slowly.
What to watch when Trump and Xi sit down Thursday
Three scenarios cover the realistic range. The first is reassurance: summit language affirming peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, followed by the $14 billion package quietly moving forward — Taipei's hope, and the outcome Lee's statement was designed to make politically easier. The second is the quiet freeze: no announcement, the package stays parked, the chip stays on the table for the next round of talks. Given the tactical-truce pattern of this entire US-China relationship — de-escalation without resolution — this is the most likely outcome. The third is the trade: an explicit or implicit linkage of arms sales to trade concessions. That is Taipei's nightmare scenario, and it would detonate trust across the Indo-Pacific in ways no tariff deal could repair.
Watch the communiqués for whether the Strait is mentioned at all, watch Rubio's “balance” framing for hardening or softening, and watch whether the summit's trade and AI agenda crowds Taiwan off the table entirely. As our coverage of the summit itself, the Bessent trade-truce talks, and the AI and Taiwan items on the agenda have noted, Thursday's meeting is heavy on symbolism — but for Taiwan, the symbolism is the substance.
Sources
- Reuters, “Taiwan thanks US for its support ahead of Trump-Xi summit,” September 24, 2026
- Devdiscourse, “Taiwan thanks US for its support ahead of Trump-Xi summit,” September 24, 2026
- Internewscast, “US Reaffirms Taiwan Support Ahead of Trump-Xi White House Meeting”
- Daily Caller News Foundation, “China's Supposed Trump-Xi Summit Threat Gets Shot Down By Senior US Official,” September 17, 2026
- Reuters, “Trump welcomes Xi to Washington looking for a trade win,” September 24, 2026