Lai Says Taiwan Won’t Be Sacrificed as Trump Weighs Arms Deal

Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te

Photographer: Lam Yik Fei/Bloomberg

Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te said the self-ruled democracy cannot be traded away, days after US President Donald Trump described a planned $14 billion arms sale to Taipei as a bargaining chip with China.

“Taiwan will never be sacrificed or traded,” Lai said in a Facebook post on Sunday evening, adding that the island’s central role in Indo-Pacific security and global supply chains, particularly for artificial intelligence and semiconductors, makes stability a shared interest among democratic nations.