Beijing Threatens to Cancel Sept. 24 Trump-Xi Summit Over Possible New Taiwan Arms Sale

Since Trump extended his invitation to Xi Jinping during their mid-May meeting in Beijing, the September 24 White House summit has been treated as all but locked in. Multiple sources told Japan's Kyodo News on Saturday that China intends to cancel the meeting outright if Washington approves any new arms sales to Taiwan beforehand, according to reporting picked up by the Taipei Times, The Straits Times, India Today, the Philippine Daily Inquirer, and AOL.

The warning comes amid US-China friction. It follows a national emergency declaration by Trump over Chinese grid equipment, with the Department of Energy given until Christmas Eve to write enforcement rules. A day earlier, Beijing invoked its counter-espionage law against US firms following the CIA's naming of Chinese AI and chip companies as spy targets. Xi spent the same period in New Delhi on his first India trip in seven years, discussing "good neighbourliness" with Narendra Modi while the border dispute stayed frozen.

Beijing's message is specific: Taiwan is a "red line," and China wants Washington to know it before any new package gets approved. Xi told Trump directly in Beijing in May that Taiwan was the "most important issue" between the two countries and warned that mishandling it could trigger conflict, according to the Inquirer and The Straits Times, both citing the Kyodo sourcing.

Trump's own comments haven't helped. After that May meeting, he told a television interviewer that arms sales to Taiwan could be "a very good negotiating chip" in dealings with Beijing. Per the Inquirer's reporting, this raised doubts in Asia about whether Washington still treats Taiwan's defense as a fixed commitment rather than a bargaining chip to trade away.

The stakes involve significant sums. The Trump administration announced an $11 billion arms package for Taiwan in December 2025, the largest single sale in the relationship's history, which prompted an angry response from Beijing at the time, according to the Inquirer and AOL. AOL also reports that a separate $14 billion sale was paused in May, with a US Navy official citing the need to keep weapons available for the ongoing war effort against Iran. That represents an unusual admission that Taiwan arms flows are already competing with other US military priorities.

China has leverage to make the threat credible. AOL notes Beijing conducted its first intercontinental ballistic missile test over the Pacific since 2024 in July, and the Taipei Times has separately reported China deploying a record number of military aircraft near the island in recent weeks. Ground News's aggregation of multiple outlets found one source describing China as maintaining a "cooperative stance" and "not hindering dialogue," suggesting Beijing wants the summit to happen on its terms.

ZeroHedge's coverage goes further than the Kyodo reporting itself, framing the threat inside a broader argument that Xi used the BRICS summit to convert the bloc's rare-earth dominance into geopolitical muscle against Washington. China's mineral leverage is real and separately sourced, but this is a ZeroHedge framing device layered onto the Taiwan story, not something Kyodo's sources said connects directly to the summit threat. The rare-earth angle provides additional context, but arms sales appear to be the lever Beijing is using here.

The trade side of the relationship is still moving forward despite the threat. The Treasury and Commerce departments are negotiating a deal to cut tariffs on $30 billion worth of goods from each side, and Iran policy is expected to be on the summit agenda as well. China remains Tehran's largest trading partner while Trump's administration pressures Beijing to cut business ties with Iran, according to the Inquirer and Straits Times.

On Taiwan's position: supporters of continued arms sales argue the Taiwan Relations Act, passed by Congress in 1979, obligates the US to help Taiwan maintain adequate self-defense regardless of what Beijing threatens. Treating those sales as leverage in a summit negotiation undermines decades of stated US policy. That concern is real and unresolved, and hasn't been addressed by any statement from the Trump administration on whether it plans to approve or delay a new package before September 24.

As of Saturday, no new Taiwan arms sale has been announced, and Beijing has not officially confirmed Xi's travel plans for the summit. Prediction market Polymarket still had Xi as the heavy favorite, at 95%, to be Trump's September meeting partner, according to ZeroHedge, suggesting traders aren't yet pricing in a cancellation. Whether that holds depends on a decision the White House hasn't made public yet.