China threatens to cancel Xi-Trump summit
China threatens to cancel Xi-Trump summit
Alexandra SnowSat, September 12, 2026 at 3:42 PM UTC
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The US president has placed great importance on the meeting in the run-up to the midterm elections - The New York Times/Kenny Holston
China warned the United States that it would cancel a forthcoming summit between the two countries’ leaders if the US approved new arms sales to Taiwan, sources have said.
Xi Jinping, the Chinese president, is expected to meet Donald Trump at the White House on Sept 24 for their third face-to-face meeting in a year.
The US president has placed great importance on the meeting in the run-up to the November midterm elections, hoping it will boost his tumbling approval rating.
However, as it prepared for the summit, China restated its position that the Taiwan issue was a “red line” in bilateral relations between Beijing and Washington, multiple sources told Kyodo News, a Japanese news agency.
In December last year, the Trump administration announced an unprecedented $11bn (£8.1bn) arms sales package for Taiwan. This triggered an angry response in Beijing, which claims that the small self-governing island is part of Chinese territory. In May, the US said it was pausing a separate $14bn arms sale to Taiwan to ensure it had enough weapons for its war on Iran.
The sources said that the Chinese government had threatened to cancel the bilateral meeting this month if any fresh arms sales were approved. The cancellation of such an important meeting would be embarrassing for Mr Trump so close to the midterms.
China has been increasing its military activity in and around the Taiwan Strait. In July, it conducted its first intercontinental ballistic missile test over the Pacific since 2024, stoking fears of a potential invasion.
Mr Xi previously told the US president that Taiwan was the “most important issue” in relations between their two countries, and warned of the potential for conflict if it were mishandled.
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Both sides, however, still seem anxious to avoid taking decisions that could risk torpedoing their current trade truce.
During his visit to Beijing in May, Mr Trump said that arms sales to Taiwan could be “a very good negotiating chip” in his dealings with China.
Under the Taiwan Relations Act, enacted by Congress after Washington severed diplomatic ties with Taipei in favour of Beijing in 1979, the US supplies Taiwan with arms to help it maintain a sufficient self-defence capability.
However, under the second Trump administration, scepticism in Taiwan about Washington’s commitment to supporting its defence has continued to grow.
The war in Iran is also set to be a major item on the agenda at the planned summit, as it has deepened tensions between the two superpowers. China is by far Tehran’s biggest trading partner, and could be affected by Washington’s aggressive sanctions on Iran’s business partners.
Xi Jinping and Donald Trump have already met twice in the past year - Reuters/Evan Vucci
On Friday, US officials told The Wall Street Journal that Iran had relied on Chinese satellite imagery to carry out a strike that killed three American soldiers in July.
The sources said it provided the clearest evidence so far that Beijing’s support for its ally during the six-month conflict had had deadly consequences.
China has routinely rejected warnings from Washington that Chinese companies were supplying high-resolution imagery to Iran.
The Chinese government has not made an official announcement regarding Mr Xi’s planned visit to the US.
Source: “AOL Breaking”
