Chinese leader Xi Jinping will urge US President Donald Trump to halt arms sales to Taiwan during a visit to Washington this week, an issue he may raise during a visit to the US National Archives.
This was reported to Reuters by sources familiar with the situation.
The sources said that ahead of Xi’s summit with Trump in Washington this week, China is likely to break its own interpretation of the third of three joint communiqués with the United States signed in 1982. In it, the United States said it wanted to gradually reduce arms sales to Taiwan and did not seek long-term arms supplies to Taipei.
In an accompanying memo, then-US President Ronald Reagan said that the US’s willingness to reduce arms sales “certainly depends” on China’s continued commitment to a peaceful resolution of its differences with Taiwan.
Over the past five years, China has significantly increased its military activity around Taiwan, including conducting military exercises with live-fire missile launches. The Chinese military operates near the island almost daily.
The sources said China will also urge the United States to stop supplying weapons that Taiwan has already ordered. According to one of them, Xi may “stress to Trump that Taiwan is a provocateur and the sole source of instability in US-China relations and that Taiwan is changing the status quo”. The sources said that in return, China is offering to help pressure Iran over a war in the Middle East.
Xi Jinping will arrive in Washington on Wednesday, September 23. Formal talks will take place on Thursday, and a visit to the National Archives will be held on Friday. A White House official said Trump will decide on a new arms package for Taiwan fairly quickly.
During his first term, Trump approved more arms sales to Taiwan than any other US president. In his second term, he approved more such sales in his first year than Joe Biden did in his entire four years as president.
According to the "Six Assurances" for Taiwan, also adopted in 1982 but declassified only in 2020, the US did not set a date for ending arms sales to Taiwan and did not agree to consult with Beijing in advance about such sales.
Relations between China, Taiwan and the United States
Tensions in the Asia-Pacific region are rising amid Chinaʼs threats to seize Taiwan, a U.S. ally that the ruling Communist Party considers part of its territory.
Beijing has increasingly promised to “reunify” the island with mainland China since 2022. The US supports Taiwan with weapons, but has not explicitly stated whether it would intervene in the event of a Chinese attack.
According to Taiwanʼs Ministry of Defense, Chinese military aircraft enter Taiwanʼs air defense zone more than 245 times a month — five years ago, there were no more than ten such "visits". In addition, approximately 120 crossings of the median line in the Taiwan Strait are recorded every month.
In March 2023, Chinese leader Xi Jinping called on Chinaʼs troops to prepare for war, and on the eve of 2024 said that "reunification" is inevitable. Taiwanʼs Foreign Ministry predicts a possible attack by China in 2027.
In the summer of 2025, Trump refused to approve more than $400 million in military aid to Taiwan because of his desire to negotiate a trade deal with China and meet Xi Jinping in person. But the US later approved a record arms package to Taiwan worth more than $11 billion.
In response, China imposed sanctions on 20 American defense companies and 10 individuals. That same month, the Chinese military conducted combat exercises around Taiwan.
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