But the president “didn’t ask him for anything,” Rubio said.
“We’re not asking for China’s help. We don’t need their help,” said Rubio, who has been under Chinese sanctions since 2020 over his criticism of China’s human rights record. (Ahead of Trump’s trip China indicated that the sanctions would not prevent Rubio from traveling to Beijing because they concerned his actions as a senator, not secretary of state.)
The Iran war has loomed large over Trump’s China trip, causing it to be postponed by six weeks. China, which has close ties with Iran, has criticized the U.S. and Israeli strikes that began Feb. 28 and called for a diplomatic solution to the conflict.
Rubio said Trump and Xi had found common ground on Iran, with China reiterating its opposition to Tehran developing nuclear weapons.
A Chinese readout of the Trump-Xi talks made no direct mention of Iran, saying only that the two leaders “exchanged views on major international and regional issues including the Middle East situation,” according to Xinhua, China’s state-run news agency.
Rubio defended comments Trump made earlier this week that he was “not even a little bit” concerned with the financial pressures Americans are facing as he negotiates with Iran.
“What the president’s making clear is, if the Iranians think that they are going to use our domestic politics to pressure him into a bad deal, that’s not going to happen,” he said.
No change on Taiwan
Along with Iran, a top item on the summit agenda was Taiwan, one of the most sensitive issues in U.S.-China ties. Xi warned Trump on Thursday that tensions over Taiwan could jeopardize the relationship, leading to “clashes and even conflicts” if the issue is not handled carefully, according to Beijing’s readout of the talks.
Like most countries, the U.S. has no formal relations with Taiwan, but it is the self-ruling democracy’s biggest international backer and arms supplier. Though the U.S. is legally bound to provide Taiwan with defensive weapons, it has long maintained a policy of “strategic ambiguity” when it comes to whether its military would defend the island directly in the event of a Chinese attack.
“Our policies on that have not changed,” Rubio said. “It’s been pretty consistent across multiple presidential administrations, and remains consistent now.”
Trump has often spoken about Taiwan in transactional terms, demanding that it spend more on defense and complaining that its world-leading semiconductor industry is “stealing” American jobs. That has raised concerns from Taiwan supporters that Trump could make concessions to Xi on Taiwan such as changing U.S. policy from “not supporting” Taiwan independence to “opposing” it, a subtle shift that Beijing has been pressing for.
