The Trump White House is saying there has been “no change” to the U.S. policy toward China and Taiwan, despite a subtle change in wording in a national security document released last week amidst growing challenges for the U.S. in the Pacific.

The Trump Administration’s National Security Strategy (NSS), released last week, stated that “we will also maintain our longstanding declaratory policy on Taiwan, meaning that the United States does not support any unilateral change to the status quo in the Taiwan Strait."

Rhetorical shift

This represented what appeared to be a small but notable rhetorical shift in what the U.S. had said in the past, modifying the wording from “opposing” a unilateral change in the Taiwan Strait to saying the U.S. “does not support” such a unilateral change.

In May 2022, the Biden State Department released a fact sheet on U.S.-Taiwan relations which stated that “we oppose any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side; we do not support Taiwan independence; and we expect cross-Strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means.”

The State Department's website currently links to the May 2022 version of the Taiwan fact sheet, with the caveat that the info has not been updated.

“There is no change to U.S. policy regarding Taiwan,” a White House official who insisted upon anonymity told Just the News. “The U.S. One China policy, which provides for executive branch interactions with both sides of the Taiwan Strait, remains the same as the first Trump Administration.”

The White House official noted that the “One China” policy is based on the Taiwan Relations Act, the three U.S.-PRC Joint Communiqués, and the Six Assurances to Taiwan.

Taiwan, known as the Republic of China, is an independent island nation off the coast of mainland China. The communist and authoritarian People’s Republic of China (PRC) has long sought to bring the democratic nation under its control, while Taiwan is self-governed and receives U.S. defense support despite not being formally recognized.

War Secretary Pete Hegseth spoke at the Reagan National Defense Forum over the weekend, where he discussed U.S. policy toward Taiwan and China.

“We're not trying to strangle China's growth. We're not trying to dominate or humiliate them, nor are we trying to change the status quo over Taiwan. Our interests in the Indo-Pacific are significant, but also scoped and reasonable,” Hegseth said. “This includes the ability for us, along with allies, to be postured strongly enough in the Indo-Pacific to balance China's growing power. This means ensuring none of our allies are vulnerable to sustained successful military aggression.”

Hegseth added that “this is what we mean by deterrence in the Indo-Pacific: not dominating China, but rather ensuring they do not have the ability to dominate us or our allies.”

The new NSS compared to Biden and Trump 1.0

The second Trump Administration’s NSS was released last week, and it discussed Taiwan under the subheading of “Deterring Military Threats.”

“In the long term, maintaining American economic and technological preeminence is the surest way to deter and prevent a large-scale military conflict. A favorable conventional military balance remains an essential component of strategic competition,” the NSS says. “There is, rightly, much focus on Taiwan, partly because of Taiwan’s dominance of semiconductor production, but mostly because Taiwan provides direct access to the Second Island Chain and splits Northeast and Southeast Asia into two distinct theaters. Given that one-third of global shipping passes annually through the South China Sea, this has major implications for the U.S. economy. Hence deterring a conflict over Taiwan, ideally by preserving military overmatch, is a priority. We will also maintain our longstanding declaratory policy on Taiwan, meaning that the United States does not support any unilateral change to the status quo in the Taiwan Strait.”

The Biden Administration released its own NSS in 2022.

“We have an abiding interest in maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, which is critical to regional and global security and prosperity and a matter of international concern and attention,” the Biden document read. “We oppose any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side, and do not support Taiwan independence. We remain committed to our one China policy, which is guided by the Taiwan Relations Act, the Three Joint Communiques, and the Six Assurances. And we will uphold our commitments under the Taiwan Relations Act to support Taiwan’s self-defense and to maintain our capacity to resist any resort to force or coercion against Taiwan.”

The first Trump Administration’s NSS was released in 2017.

“We will maintain a forward military presence capable of deterring and, if necessary, defeating any adversary. We will strengthen our long-standing military relationships and encourage the development of a strong defense network with our allies and partners,” the NSS from 2017 said. “For example, we will cooperate on missile defense with Japan and South Korea to move toward an area defense capability. We remain ready to respond with overwhelming force to North Korean aggression and will improve options to compel denuclearization of the peninsula.”

The 2017 strategy document added: “We will maintain our strong ties with Taiwan in accordance with our ‘One China’ policy, including our commitments under the Taiwan Relations Act to provide for Taiwan’s legitimate defense needs and deter coercion.”

Trump admin said it “opposed” unilateral changes in the Taiwan Strait matter

Trump and Japan’s then-Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru also issued a joint statement in February which said in part that the two leaders “encouraged the peaceful resolution of cross-Strait issues, and opposed any attempts to unilaterally change the status quo by force or coercion.”

The G7 — including the U.S. — released a joint statement in November which said that “we emphasized the importance of maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, and opposed any unilateral attempts to change the status quo, particularly by force or coercion.”

Taiwan President Lai Ching-te said in November that he “deeply appreciate[s] the @G7 FMs [foreign ministers] for voicing opposition to any unilateral attempts to change the status quo in the Taiwan Strait, particularly by force or coercion.”

Jack Burnham, a senior research analyst in the China Program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies told Just the News that “the NSS language around Taiwan and China reflects the administration’s effort to seek continuity without firm commitments that may tie its hands.”

China analysts raise questions about NSS' wording change

“The subtle shift in the language around Taiwan occurs just as the United States increasingly recognizes Taipei’s importance while seeking to maintain a fragile sense of stability with Beijing,” Burnham said. “While the Trump administration rightly highlights Taiwan’s importance as a strategic linchpin within the region, particularly in regard to the Second Island Chain, it also argues for a genuinely positive economic relationship with Beijing, setting up a balancing act that will continue into President Trump’s expected meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping next year.”

Zack Cooper, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, reportedly told Nikkei Asia that "U.S. policy has not usually been to 'not support' unilateral changes, but rather to 'oppose' them" and that “it is possible that by summarizing the declaratory policy as they have, they leave open changes to other wording that they did not include."

The outlet characterized Cooper’s comments as saying “that the wording in the new strategy document has combined two different positions that the U.S. has traditionally had — ‘opposing’ changes to the status quo and ‘not supporting’ Taiwan independence.”

Ryan Fedasiuk, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a member of the State Department Office of China Coordination during the Biden Administration, told the Wall Street Journal that “Beijing treats every written American commitment as a negotiating floor” and that the NSS “establishes the baseline from which Beijing negotiates, and the baseline just moved.”

The outlet wrote that “Fedasiuk said that what he regards as a tempering of the U.S. stance — from one that ‘opposes’ unilateral changes to the status quo over Taiwan during the Biden years to one in which the U.S. merely ‘does not support’ any unilateral change in the new Trump document — will be cheered in Beijing.”

“Beijing will pocket this concession and use it as the starting point for the next negotiation and ask for even greater flexibility,” Fedasiuk said.

Fedasiuk told the Taipei Times that the wording change from “oppose” to “does not support” unilateral changes to the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait was “a meaningful downgrade.”

Taiwan and China react to the new NSS

Su Tzu-yun, the director of the Division of Defense Strategy and Resources at Taiwan’s military-funded Institute for National Defense and Security Research, reportedly “told reporters that the [NSS] clearly mentions ‘collective defense’ and the prevention of specific countries from occupying Taiwan, demonstrating that the U.S.’s commitment to the security of the Taiwan Strait is firmly anchored,” according to the Taipei Times.

“The prevailing doubts within Taiwan about the U.S. should be dispelled,” he reportedly said.

The outlet added: “Taiwan is in the ‘golden egg’ zone of the first island chain, controlling the maritime link from Northeast Asia to Southeast Asia, he said. If Taiwan were to fall under China’s control, it would likely become ‘China’s Hawaii,’ as the People’s Liberation Army could directly use Hualien Port as a base for nuclear submarines to threaten the U.S. West Coast, he said. That would be a strategic disaster that democratic allies such as the U.S., Japan, and South Korea could not bear, he added.”

Joseph Wu, the Secretary-General of the Taiwan National Security Council, tweeted on Tuesday that “we will work with like-minded partners to uphold the #statusquo across the #TaiwanStrait” and that “we oppose any escalation & unilateral attempt to change it by force or coercion.”

A reporter from Reuters asked Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Guo Jiakun on Monday about “the Foreign Ministry’s reaction to the Trump administration’s newly released National Security Strategy, given that it says that the U.S. does not support any unilateral change to the status quo in the Taiwan Strait.”

“We noted the ‘National Security Strategy’ report released by the U.S. government. China always believes that China and the U.S. stand to gain from cooperation and lose from confrontation,” Guo Jiakun replied.

China: "the first red line that must not be crossed"

The Chinese government spokesperson added: “On the Taiwan question, we stress that Taiwan is China’s Taiwan and is an inalienable part of China’s territory. The Taiwan question is at the core of China’s core interests and the first red line that must not be crossed in China-U.S. relations. Resolving the Taiwan question is a matter for the Chinese people and Chinese people only that brooks no external interference.”

U.S. relations with Taiwan became unofficial in 1979 after the U.S. agreed to establish diplomatic relations with the Chinese Communist Party-ruled Chinese mainland. The U.S. follows what is referred to as a policy of “strategic ambiguity” on the issue of whether it would use U.S. military might to protect the island of Taiwan if Beijing attacks or invades.

The Taiwan Relations Act of 1979 states that it is the policy of the U.S. “to provide Taiwan with arms of a defensive character,” but it does not include a mutual defense agreement, reading that America’s stance was also “to make clear that the United States decision to establish diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China rests upon the expectation that the future of Taiwan will be determined by peaceful means” and “to consider any effort to determine the future of Taiwan by other than peaceful means, including by boycotts or embargoes, a threat to the peace and security of the Western Pacific area and of grave concern to the United States.”

Trump State Department’s own prior wording shift on Taiwan

Reuters reported in February that changes were made to the State Department’s wording related to the U.S. stance on Taiwan independence.

The Biden State Department released a U.S.-Taiwan relations fact sheet in May 2022 which said that “we oppose any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side; we do not support Taiwan independence; and we expect cross-Strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means.”

Nikkei Asia reported in February that a Trump administration official told them that "the reality is that we don't think it's a helpful thing to state publicly" what the U.S. position is on Taiwan independence, and that “the phrase that we support status quo and no unilateral change by either side is sufficient."

That version of the State Department webpage appears to have been active until late April, according to the internet archive "Wayback Machine," and that version of the State Department's webpage appears to have been removed by early May.

The State Department did not provide a comment to Just the News.

Xi Jinping wanted Trump to say U.S. “opposes” Taiwan independence

Multiple outlets reported in September that Chinese leader Xi Jinping planned to urge Trump to state that the U.S. formally “opposes” Taiwan’s independence.

The Wall Street Journal reported that “as President Trump has shown interest in striking an economic accord with China in the coming year, the people say, the Chinese leader is planning to press his American counterpart to formally state the U.S. ‘opposes’ Taiwan’s independence” and that this would be “a change in U.S. policy that Beijing hopes could isolate Taiwan.”

Bloomberg News also reported that “China has asked the Trump administration to officially declare that it ‘opposes’ Taiwan independence” and that “the suggested wording is stronger than the Biden administration’s previous statement that US officials ‘do not support’ the self-ruled island seeking formal independence, and would add to China’s campaign to isolate Taiwan on the world stage.”

The CCP-run Global Times wrote in November that “in his phone call with the US president, President Xi outlined China’s principled position on the Taiwan question.”

Bryan Burack, a senior policy advisor for China and the Indo-Pacific at the conservative Heritage Foundation, wrote in November that “the CCP is reportedly pushing the United States to officially oppose Taiwan’s independence” and that “doing so would cause a major disruption in the delicate, 46-year-old U.S. policy that has helped prevent war over Taiwan.”

“The CCP is doubtlessly trying to make this concession part of a U.S.-China deal — a quid pro quo for trade concessions — and deceptively framing it as a cost-free opportunity to reduce risk for the U.S,” Burack wrote. “In reality, ‘opposing’ Taiwan’s independence would be destabilizing. If anything, it would increase the likelihood that Communist China uses force against Taiwan.”

Biden White House repeatedly walked back Biden’s comments on Taiwan

Biden said the U.S. would defend Taiwan militarily at least four times — in August and October 2021 and in May and September 2022.

Biden repeatedly vowed that the U.S. would respond militarily to defend Taiwan if China attacked the democratic island nation. Each time, the Biden White House subsequently insisted America’s decades-long policy toward Taiwan was not shifting.

Just a few days after the Taliban took Kabul, Afghanistan, in August 2021, Biden vowed to George Stephanopoulos of ABC News that the U.S. would “respond” to any possible Chinese invasion of Taiwan. Biden argued, “We made a sacred commitment to Article V that if, in fact, anyone were to invade or take action against our NATO allies, we would respond. Same with Japan, same with South Korea, same with Taiwan.”

Second Trump Admin has stressed deterring China over Taiwan

Just the News previously reported about a late June closed-door meeting that U.S. Secretary of War Department Pete Hegseth held with some of the leaders of America’s largest military contractors, urging them to ramp up the production of critically needed munitions amidst depleted weapons stocks and a growing threat from China.

Trump: "I’m fucking crazy" 

The Wall Street Journal editorial board asked him in October 2024 whether he would use military force against a Chinese blockade on Taiwan, and Trump replied, “I wouldn’t have to, because he [Xi Jinping] respects me and he knows I’m fucking crazy.”

Hegseth said in a February speech that “we also face a peer competitor in the Communist Chinese with the capability and intent to threaten our homeland and core national interests in the Indo-Pacific” and that “the U.S. is prioritizing deterring war with China in the Pacific, recognizing the reality of scarcity, and making the resourcing tradeoffs to ensure deterrence does not fail.”

“Deterrence cannot fail, for all of our sakes,” Hegseth said.

Hegseth said in March during his first official trip to Asia that the U.S. will ensure “robust, ready and credible deterrence” across the Taiwan Strait, the Taipei Times reported, with Hegseth calling China “aggressive and coercive.”

“America is committed to sustaining robust, ready, and credible deterrence in the Indo-Pacific, including across the Taiwan Strait,” Hegseth said.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio was asked by Fox News in March about what the U.S. would do in response to a Chinese invasion of Taiwan, and he said, “America has existing commitments it has made to prevent that from happening and to react to it, and that would be executed on.”

The Financial Times reported in July that “the Pentagon is pressing Japan and Australia to make clear what role they would play if the U.S. and China went to war over Taiwan.”

It remains to be seen whether the new NSS — which stressed deterrence — will help stave off a possible conflict in the Pacific.