Xi Asked Trump to Say ‘Oppose’ on Taiwan. Washington Hasn’t Said a Word Back.

Beijing wrote its version of Thursday’s summit first. Overnight, China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported that President Xi Jinping pressed President Donald Trump, during their private White House meeting, to change America’s long-standing formulation on Taiwan — asking Washington to say it ‘opposes’ Taiwanese independence rather than merely not ‘supporting’ it. The White House, which agreed with Beijing to issue separate accounts of the summit, has released no competing account.

During the private meeting, Xi called on the U.S. to "adhere to the correct position of opposing Taiwan independence," according to the official Xinhua News Agency. The agency's English-language service also wrote that Xi hoped the US would oppose Taiwan independence. He urged Washington to maintain the "correct position" of opposing Taiwan independence and handle the Taiwan issue "with prudence."

That would be a tougher version of Washington's long-standing formulation that it does not "support" independence. The U.S. follows a "strategic ambiguity" policy, boosting Taiwan's defenses through arms sales but never committing to defend it against a Chinese attack. Any shift in language would raise questions about Washington's resolve to defend the island and provoke opposition in Congress. There are no signs that the Trump administration plans to change its wording.

The missing American version

There was no immediate White House readout of the exchange. The two governments agreed to issue separate accounts of the summit, with Beijing releasing its readout first. The White House has not yet provided its own summary of the talks. Beijing put its version on the record overnight; Washington's version simply doesn't exist yet — and the asymmetry is the story.

Senators broke ranks

Republican senators didn't wait for the American version. "I think President Xi is a reptile," said Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana. Kennedy added: "This man thinks he's on a mission from God except his god is himself." Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa said she was uncomfortable with the pageantry but hoped something positive would emerge for farmers, who have been squeezed by Trump's tariff policies. Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina said the red carpet affair undermined GOP campaign messaging efforts against branding Democrats as communists.

The $14 billion question the readout didn't answer

Mr. Xi had been expected to press Mr. Trump this week to halt arms sales to Taiwan. If he did, the readout didn't say: although the Chinese readout did not specify whether Xi raised arms sales during the meeting. In May, Trump told reporters he didn't "want to say" if he would deploy troops in such a scenario. And he has yet to approve a $14 billion arms package to Taiwan despite pressure from lawmakers, including Republicans, to deliver the weapons — a package Trump said, following his visit to China in May, he was holding in abeyance — and called it a "very good negotiating chip."

The Thucydides Trap and the AI split

Xi reached for an academic theory to frame the rivalry — he invoked the "Thucydides Trap", an academic theory that competition between a rising power and an established one tends toward war — and he called for regular military dialogue and stronger crisis-prevention mechanisms.

"We have both the capability and responsibility to develop and manage AI for good and ensure that a development of AI is always under human control and serves the well being of the people," Xi said. Trump has dismissed warnings that AI could threaten humanity as a "scam" and "conspiracy" in past remarks, and on Thursday was reiterating his opposition to additional AI regulation or safeguards. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent raised the idea of a notification system—in effect, an AI hotline—to alert each other when an incident rises to the level of national security. It wasn't clear late Thursday whether that idea was addressed between the two leaders.

The closed-door talks lasted about 90 minutes according to the White House press pool. Xi arrived at the White House at 10:07 a.m. local time and departed at 1:29 p.m. The summit also extended the trade truce by two months, pushing its expiration to Jan. 10 — Beijing had wanted a two-year extension. China agreed to buy 25 million tons of U.S. soybeans, plus about $17 billion in other farm commitments, as TickerGrove reported Thursday.

What comes next

Whether the White House ever releases its own account of the meeting; whether the ‘oppose’ language resurfaces in U.S. policy; and the Jan. 10 deadline on the truce extension. With the midterms six weeks out, the optics fight that Kennedy and Tillis started will outlast the pageantry.

It is not known whether Trump answered Xi's language request at all — the only account in circulation is Xinhua's. The summit is over; the argument about what was said has only begun.