Former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell said on April 29 that China has “ambitions” on Taiwan and warned that Chinese President Xi Jinping may press President Donald Trump to openly oppose Taiwanese independence when the two leaders meet in Beijing next month.
Trump is scheduled to visit Beijing on May 14-15, a trip expected to center on major business deals, including expanded Chinese purchases of U.S. agricultural products. Campbell said the timing matters because “the issue of Taiwan figures prominently” in Xi Jinping’s desire for the visit.
Speaking in Washington, Campbell said Beijing’s muted reaction to the trip is unusual given that the United States is carrying out military operations in the Middle East. He said that silence “suggests that they have a plan,” and added that the Chinese know “what they'd like to accomplish” in the coming meeting with Trump.
The warning lands against a long-standing U.S. policy backdrop. Previous administrations had maintained a position of not supporting Taiwanese independence, but Campbell’s remarks point to concern that Xi could try to push Washington into something sharper: an explicit declaration against it. That would be a notable shift in tone, even if it stopped short of a formal policy change.
For Taiwan, the stakes are tied less to the visit itself than to what Trump may be asked to say in the room with Xi. If Beijing tries to extract a public line on independence, the summit could become about more than trade, agriculture and market access, and the first sign of that pressure may come before Trump ever lands in Beijing.