President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping opened their long-awaited summit Thursday with warm public praise and carefully staged diplomacy — but behind closed doors, Taiwan quickly emerged as the explosive issue threatening to overshadow the entire meeting.
The leaders’ mid-morning sitdown stretched roughly 40 minutes beyond schedule as Xi repeatedly pressed Trump on Beijing’s top geopolitical obsession: Taiwan, the democratic island China claims as its own.
By the time the two men appeared again at Beijing’s historic Temple of Heaven, the mood had visibly shifted.
Trump ignored shouted questions from reporters, while both leaders appeared noticeably stiffer and more restrained than they had earlier in the day.
Then Beijing made its message unmistakably public.
“President Xi stressed to President Trump that the Taiwan question is the most important issue in China-US relations,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning wrote on X shortly after the bilateral meeting ended.
“If it is handled properly, the bilateral relationship will enjoy overall stability. Otherwise, the two countries will have clashes and even conflicts, putting the entire relationship in great jeopardy,” Mao added.
President Xi stressed to President Trump that the Taiwan question is the most important issue in China-U.S. relations. If it is handled properly, the bilateral relationship will enjoy overall stability. Otherwise, the two countries will have clashes and even conflicts, putting… pic.twitter.com/gqji6lEfL7
— Mao Ning 毛宁 (@SpoxCHN_MaoNing) May 14, 2026
Beijing escalated the rhetoric further by directly tying Taiwanese independence efforts to the possibility of regional instability.
“‘Taiwan independence’ and cross-Strait peace are as irreconcilable as fire and water,” Mao wrote, framing the line as a direct warning delivered from Xi to Trump personally.
The White House took a very different approach.
Hours passed before the administration released its official readout of the meeting — and notably, Taiwan was nowhere to be found in the statement.
White House Communications Director Steven Cheung declined to discuss the issue with reporters during the state banquet, repeatedly referring questions back to the official release.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio later sought to downplay the apparent tension during an interview with NBC News.
“US policy on the issue of Taiwan is unchanged as of today and as of the meeting that we had here today,” Rubio said. “It was raised. They always raise it on their side. We always make clear our position and we move on to the other topics.”
Still, the episode underscored just how central Taiwan has become to the increasingly volatile US-China relationship.
Taiwan has operated as a self-governing democracy since 1949, when nationalist forces led by Chiang Kai-shek fled to the island following defeat in the Chinese Civil War.
While the United States officially acknowledges Beijing’s “One China” position dating back to the late 1970s, Washington has continued supplying Taiwan with military equipment and defensive support for decades.
More over at The New York Post:
Taiwan becomes flashpoint of Trump-Xi summit as Rubio warns Beijing of 'repercussions' for invasion https://t.co/eAycWwfctj pic.twitter.com/EX9A46pDL6
— New York Post (@nypost) May 14, 2026
