Chinese leader Xi Jinping pressed the ever-sensitive issue of Taiwan in a phone call Monday with US President Donald Trump, as he stressed the need to build on a fragile trade truce between the two superpowers.
China’s foreign ministry said the call touched on other issues like Ukraine, but Taiwan featured prominently with China embroiled in a weeks-long diplomatic row with key US ally Japan over the self-governing island.
China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and Xi told Trump that its return was an “integral part of ...-war international order” forged in the joint US-China fight against “fascism and militarism”, according to the department.
“Given what is going on, it is even more important for us to jointly safeguard the victory of WWII,” Xi told Trump.
The bitter dispute between Tokyo and Beijing was triggered by new Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi suggesting this month that Tokyo could intervene militarily in any attack on Taiwan.
While the United States does not officially recognise Taiwan’s claim to statehood, Washington remains the island’s most important partner and arms supplier.
There was no immediate readout on the call from the White House, but according to China’s foreign ministry, Trump told Xi that the United States “understands how important the Taiwan question is to China.”