“Taiwan is next,” former US President Donald Trump proclaimed in a Wednesday morning interview with Maria Bartiromo, host of Fox Business ‘Mornings With Maria.’
Such a move will be carried out sooner, rather than later, according to the one-term 45th president of the US, who claimed Beijing is “seeing how stupid the United States is run."
He additionally proclaimed that this is China’s “time” to conduct an offensive against Taiwan, particularly because Beijing has observed how “incompetent” Washington has become.
“President Xi happens to be a man with a high intelligence level,” Trump suggested, adding that the chaotic US pullout from Afghanistan was an example of the Biden administration’s foreign policy and military failures.
“[Xi] saw the way that we left Afghanistan like a surrender and left $85 billion and death behind and left American citizens there that are still trying to get out,” Trump said. “This is his opportunity to do what he wants to do, which is ... he's wanted to do that, and China's wanted to do that for decades.”
Trump expressed similar views during a February broadcast of ‘The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show.’ The former US president has also maintained that such a move would not have occurred under his administration.
The former US president’s reiterated claim comes alongside continued US efforts to support the state, with Taiwanese Premier Su Tseng-chang proclaiming on Tuesday that “the importance of Taiwan-US relations” was exemplified with same-day visit from members of a US delegation, as well as Mike Mullen, former chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Responding to the dispatch of US officials to Taiwan, the Chinese Foreign Ministry has since declared that Beijing remains “firmly determined and resolved to defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
Mullen is expected to hold a series of meetings this week with President Tsai Ing-wen and a number of high-ranking Taiwanese officials.
Former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also arrived in Taiwan this week ahead of planned discussions with President Tsai Ing-wen. Pompeo is among the 28 Trump-era officials sanctioned after US President Joe Biden took office in January 2021.
“It is wonderful to be here. I've been looking forward to coming to visit with the people of Taiwan for a very long time,” Pompeo told members of the press at the airport in Taiwan, as reported by Reuters.
“I'm so much looking forward to my trip to meet with business people, people from government, people all across your great nation,” he said, signaling a possible departure from the ‘One China’ policy.
The visit comes just days after the guided-missile destroyer Ralph Johnson conducted a reported routine freedom of navigation transit through the Taiwan Strait. China panned the destroyer’s movement as “provocative,” while the 7th Fleet emphasized the “transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the United States’ commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific.”
While both Beijing and Washington recognize Taiwan as part of China, concerns have been raised regarding a possible mainland response to the island’s recent decision to support US-led anti-Russian sanctions and remove Russian banks from the global SWIFT financial messaging network. Beijing has previously spoken out against the imposition of such unilateral sanctions over the situation in Ukraine.