Top US representative in Taipei urges strategic stability before Trump-Xi summit

Washington raises the stakes before the summit

The United States’ senior representative in Taipei used a defence forum on September 9 to argue that preventing conflict across the Taiwan Strait should be a central objective of the expected meeting between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping later this month. Raymond Greene, director of the American Institute in Taiwan, said the summit offered an opportunity to reduce misunderstandings and strategic miscalculation between the two powers.

Reuters reported that Greene described the potential economic consequences of a cross-strait conflict as exceeding those of the Second World War. The comparison was a warning rather than a prediction or intelligence assessment. His underlying point was that Taiwan’s role in semiconductor supply chains, the strait’s importance to maritime commerce and the risk of direct US-China confrontation would transmit the damage far beyond East Asia.

Diplomacy and deterrence remain linked

Greene presented Washington’s approach as a combination of high-level diplomacy, a stronger regional presence, partnerships with Indo-Pacific governments and support for Taiwan’s self-defence. The United States has no formal diplomatic relationship with Taiwan, but remains its most important security supporter and arms supplier. Beijing claims Taiwan as Chinese territory, while Taipei rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claim and governs itself democratically.

An official Defense Department account of US policy states that Washington opposes unilateral changes to the status quo, works with allies to strengthen deterrence and provides Taiwan with defensive capabilities under the Taiwan Relations Act. It also identifies the strait as an international waterway essential to global commerce. That established policy supplies the institutional context for Greene’s remarks, while Reuters provides the fresh forum statement and summit timing.

What the meeting can and cannot settle

The summit may establish crisis-communication practices or political commitments that lower the chance of an accidental escalation, but it is unlikely to resolve the sovereignty dispute. Taiwan is also increasing defence expenditure and modernising its forces, with its government budgeting more than one trillion New Taiwan dollars for 2027, according to Reuters. The practical indicators to watch are whether Trump and Xi address military signalling, preserve communications during exercises and avoid moves that either side interprets as changing the status quo.