Kurt Campbell Says China Has Ambitions Over Taiwan Ahead Summit
Kurt Campbell said China has "ambitions" over taiwan ahead of the upcoming U.S.-China summit, warning that President Xi Jinping may press Donald Trump to move beyond Washington’s long-standing position of not supporting Taiwanese independence. Campbell made the comments in Washington on April 29 and said the Taiwan issue is likely to sit near the center of the Beijing meeting.
Trump is scheduled to visit Beijing on May 14-15, where he is expected to seek major business deals, including expanded Chinese purchases of U.S. agricultural products. Campbell said the timing gives Xi a chance to push for a shift in the U.S. position from not supporting Taiwanese independence to explicitly opposing it.
Campbell’s April 29 warning
In Washington on April 29, the former U.S. deputy secretary of state said China has "ambitions" over the Taiwan issue. On Monday, Campbell told Jiji Press that he was concerned Xi may directly urge Trump to declare open opposition to Taiwanese independence.
Campbell said the Taiwan issue figures prominently in Xi’s desire for Trump’s visit. He also said China’s lack of expressed concern about the visit, even as the United States carried out military operations in the Middle East, was unusual. That silence, Campbell said, "suggests that they have a plan."
Beijing’s expected agenda
The source says Taiwan is expected to be prominent at the summit, alongside Trump’s push for major business deals. Those talks could include expanded Chinese purchases of U.S. agricultural products, a practical issue that sits beside the sharper political question of how far Trump will go on Taiwan.
The friction point is the U.S. position itself. Previous U.S. administrations have maintained a policy of not supporting Taiwanese independence, and Campbell said the concern now is whether Xi will use the Beijing meeting to seek an explicit reversal.
Trump’s Beijing visit
Trump’s May 14-15 trip to Beijing is the next scheduled moment in this story, and it is the setting in which both sides are expected to test their priorities. Campbell said the Chinese know what they would like to accomplish in the upcoming meeting with Trump, putting Taiwan alongside trade as the issue most likely to shape the encounter.
For readers watching the summit, the immediate question is not whether Taiwan will come up, but how directly Xi will press the issue when Trump arrives in Beijing.
