„Es liegt an Xi“, wie man mit Taiwan umgeht, aber Venezuela kein Präzedenzfall: Trump – Taipei Times

SS: In a New York Times interview published Jan 8, 2026, President Trump handed the Taiwan question back to Xi Jinping, saying it’s „up to“ him how to handle it since „Xi considers it to be a part of China,“ while warning he’d be „very unhappy“ if Beijing altered the status quo—and betting Xi won’t act during his term (through 2029). Trump explicitly rejected any Venezuela parallel (his recent „audacious“ ops against Maduro), noting Taiwan poses no equivalent threat to China. China’s embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu fired back that Taiwan is „purely China’s internal affair“ under sovereign rights.

This hands-off-yet-hopeful tone—amid US military buildup for deterrence in the 2025 strategy doc—comes as cross-strait tensions simmer (PLA drills, ADIZ breaches) and Trump’s team avoids firm red lines. Does it buy breathing room for diplomacy, subtly signal low appetite for direct confrontation under America First 2.0, or quietly green-light Xi’s patience game until a potentially less resolute successor arrives?

The Trump administration making the U.S. unreliable is going to pull them into wars they don’t want