U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Sunday that the Trump administration will maintain its long-standing support for Taiwan in trade negotiations with China.
According to Rubio, the administration is not considering any trade deal with China that would require abandoning support for Taiwan. Rubio told reporters traveling on his plane between Israel and Qatar en route to Asia. “No one is contemplating that.”He was traveling to join President Trump in Doha for a regional meeting in the Asia-Pacific region.
The development follows the first day of talks between top U.S. and Chinese economic officials in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday, as the Treasury spokesperson described them as “very constructive”.
The world’s two largest economies are seeking to avert an escalation of their trade war and ensure a meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping takes place next week.
The talks on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit will chart a course forward after Trump threatened new 100% tariffs on Chinese goods and other trade restrictions beginning November 1, in response to China’s vastly expanded export controls on rare earth magnets and minerals.
Trump and Xi set for high-stakes meeting as trade tensions mount
Chinese President Xi Jinping has repeatedly called on the United States to reconsider its longstanding opposition to Taiwan’s independence. China has pushed the Trump administration to officially declare that it “opposes” independence, a move that would represent a significant diplomatic victory for Beijing.
Trump is expected to see Xi next week at a regional conference in South Korea, their first in-person meeting since Trump took office in January. Taiwan is a major flashpoint in China’s relationship with the United States, which is already strained over trade, technological transfers, and human rights. Washington remains Taipei’s largest military backer, despite President Trump’s suggestion that the island pay for its own US security.
Trump gave a less definitive response when asked earlier about U.S. policy toward Taiwan on Air Force One.
“I don’t want to talk about that now. I don’t want to create any complexity. The trip is already complex enough,” Trump said.
China doubles down on manufacturing, dimming hopes for a grand bargain
The Trump administration has long envisioned what it calls “a big, beautiful rebalancing” between the world’s two largest economies — one in which the United States revives its manufacturing base. At the same time, China boosts domestic consumption to narrow America’s trade deficit and reduce Beijing’s corresponding surpluses.
But not China’s Communist Party, it seems. Its most recent five-year economic plan indicates that the vision Trump is offering Beijing remains a low priority. Rather than promoting consumer spending, China is doubling down on its production-driven growth model, prioritizing the establishment of a “modernized industrial system” to number one, up from number two in the old plan, according to a draft unveiled on Thursday.
Ranging from 2026 to 2030, the plan prioritizes “seizing the higher ground of scientific-technological development” as its second priority, and stimulating domestic demand as its third. And they will “continue to remain secondary to manufacturing” under the new program, according to economists at JPMorgan Chase who have argued that China must push services-sector growth faster as a source of demand, employment, and income.
All signs point to the unlikelihood of a grand bargain as Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping prepare for their first face-to-face meeting of the U.S. leader’s second term, set to take place in South Korea on Thursday.
According to consultancy Trivium China, “China will double down on driving growth” through manufacturing — a stance that all but guarantees “more trade and investment restrictions from the U.S., Europe, and other major economies as they seek to protect domestic industries.”
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