00:00U.S. President Donald Trump looks set to discuss U.S. arms sale to Taiwan during his upcoming
00:06meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping. The two world leaders are set to meet in Beijing on
00:11Thursday. In the lead-up to this highly anticipated trip, top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi told U.S.
00:18Secretary of State Marco Rubio that Taiwan is the biggest point of risk in U.S.-China relations.
00:24That's because China claims Taiwan as its territory, and the U.S. is Taiwan's biggest
00:30defense partner, selling Taipei much of the weapons it would use to fend off a potential
00:35Chinese attack.
00:37Well, I'm going to have that discussion with President Xi. President Xi would like us not
00:41to, and I'll have that discussion. He knows I don't want that to happen. Very far away,
00:48very, very far away, just at 9,500 miles. We're 9,500 miles. He's 67 miles.
00:58It comes as Trump has reportedly delayed approving a proposed $14 billion U.S. arms package for
01:05Taipei before the China summit. A group of bipartisan U.S. lawmakers recently came together
01:11to urge Trump to approve the deal to show Beijing Washington's support for Taipei.
01:17What better time to notice it than when he's going to China, because that sends a very strong
01:23message that we're going to be there. If we see any sort of a delay, that would look
01:29like an opening for China, and China would take it. So I think we have to make it very
01:34clear that there is no change in posture with respect to Taiwan.
01:40These developments come as Taiwan's opposition-held legislature just passed a special defense budget
01:46of 25 billion U.S. dollars for weapons procurement. The approved spending package is far lower than
01:53President Lai Qingda's 40 billion U.S. dollar proposal, and was passed after months of delays.
01:59Even as Taipei clears obstacles to acquiring U.S.-made weapons, there's concern that Trump's meeting
02:05with Xi Jinping may see changes to Washington's long-standing Taiwan policy.
02:11While Trump and Xi are expected to discuss other global topics like Iran, energy and trade,
02:18the stakes remain high for Taiwan, and Taipei will be watching the outcome of the meeting
02:23very closely. Li Sun Chen and Leslie Liao in Taipei for Taiwan Plus.
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