Taiwan President Lai Ching-te said on Thursday he would be “happy” to talk to US leader Donald Trump – a conversation that would break more than four decades of diplomatic protocol and risk angering China.
Trump told reporters Wednesday he would speak with Lai as the White House weighs arms sales to the Democratic island.
It was the second time since the summit in Beijing last week that Trump said he would call the Taiwanese leader.
Such communication would be the first time since Washington switched diplomatic relations from Taipei to Beijing in 1979 that the sitting presidents of Taiwan and the United States would speak to each other.
Lai said Taiwan was “committed to maintaining the stable status quo in the Taiwan Strait” and that “China is disruptive to peace and stability,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.
Lai would be “happy to discuss these issues with President Trump,” the statement said.
“I’ll talk to him. I talk to everybody,” Trump said, adding that he had a great meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping during his state visit to Beijing last week.
“We’re going to work on that, the Taiwan problem,” Trump said.
After completing his trip to BeijingTrump suggested that arms sales to Taiwan could be used as a bargaining chip with China, which claims the island as part of its territory and has threatened to take it by force.
Since then, Lai’s government has been on the offensive, insisting that US policy on Taiwan has not changed and that Trump has made no commitment to China over arms sales to the island.
Taiwan relies heavily on US support to deter any potential Chinese attack and has been under heavy pressure to increase its spending through investments in US firms.
In 2016, immediately after his first election victory, President-elect Trump took a call from then-Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wenangering Beijing and stunning diplomats, world leaders and China watchers.
