00:00With the summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the
00:05horizon, Taiwan's premier feels confident that Washington won't make any drastic changes to
00:11its Taiwan policy. In the lead-up to this highly anticipated trip, top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi
00:27told U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio that Taiwan is the biggest point of risk in U.S.-China
00:34relations. That's because China claims Taiwan as its territory, while the U.S. is Taiwan's biggest
00:40defense partner, selling Taipei much of the weapons it would use to fend off a potential
00:45Chinese attack. Trump says he expects U.S. weapons sales to Taiwan to come up in his meeting with
00:52Xi Jinping. Well, I'm going to have that discussion with President Xi. President Xi would like us not
00:57to, and I'll have that discussion. The meeting comes as Trump has reportedly delayed approving
01:03a proposed $14 billion U.S. arms package for Taipei before the China summit. A group of bipartisan U.S.
01:11lawmakers recently came together to urge Trump to approve the deal to show Beijing Washington's
01:16support for Taipei. What better time to notice it than when he's going to China, because that sends
01:22a very strong message that we're going to be there. If we see any sort of a delay, that would
01:29look like
01:30an opening for China, and China would take it. So I think we have to make it very clear that
01:36there is
01:36no change in posture with respect to Taiwan. Taiwan's opposition-held legislature just passed a special
01:44defense budget of $25 billion U.S. for weapons procurement. The approved spending package is
01:50far lower than President Lai Ching does a $40 billion proposal and was passed after months of
01:56delays. While Trump and Xi are expected to discuss other global topics like Iran, energy, and trade,
02:03the stakes for Taiwan remain high, and Taipei will be watching the outcome very closely.
02:09Lee Sin-sun and Leslie Liao for Taiwan Plus.
