Breaking: Donald Trump refuses to commit to defending Taiwan as China invasion fears mount…. Check In

Donald Trump said he wants a good relationship with China despite tensions on trade and Taiwan.

US President Donald Trump has refused to commit to defending Taiwan if the country is attacked by China.

Asked if he can promise that, as long as he is president, China won’t take the island, Mr Trump replied: “I never comment on that because I don’t want to ever put myself in that position.”

He continued: “And if I said it, I certainly wouldn’t be saying it to you. I’d be saying it to other people, maybe people around this table, and very specific people around this table.

“So I don’t want to put myself in that position. But I can tell you what, I have a great relationship with President Xi, I’ve had a great relationship with him.”

The president continued to reiterate his promise of a good realtionship with China, which will involve both countries investing in each other.

He said: “We want them to come in and invest. I see so many things saying we don’t want China in this country, that’s not right. We want them to invest in the United States.

“It’s good, it’s a lot of money coming in and we’ll invest in China, we’ll do things with China. The relationship we’ll have with China will be a very good one.

“I see all of these phony reports that we don’t want their money, we don’t want anything to do with them – that’s wrong. We’re going to have a good relationship with China, but they won’t be able to take advantage of us.

The Republican then took aim once again at his predecessor Joe Biden, accusing him of not knowing “what was happening” or “what he was doing”.

He went on: “What they did to Biden – he didn’t know what was happening. He didn’t know what he was doing. The administration didn’t know what they were doing.