President Donald Trump says that Chinese President Xi Jinping has given him assurances that Beijing would take no action toward its long-stated goal of unifying Taiwan with mainland China while the Republican leader is in office.

Mr. Trump said that the long-contentious issue of Taiwan did not come up in his talks with Mr. Xi on Thursday in South Korea that largely focused on U.S.-China trade tensions. But the U.S. leader expressed certainty that China would not take action on Taiwan, while he’s in office.

“He has openly said, and his people have openly said at meetings, ‘We would never do anything while President Trump is president,’ because they know the consequences,” Mr. Trump said in an excerpt of an interview with the CBS’ programme “60 Minutes” that aired on Sunday (November 2, 2025).

U.S. officials have long been concerned about the possibility of China using military force against Taiwan, the self-ruled island democracy claimed by Beijing as part of its territory.

The 1979 Taiwan Relations Act, which has governed U.S. relations with the island, does not require the U.S. to step in militarily if China invades but makes it American policy to ensure Taiwan has the resources to defend itself and to prevent any unilateral change of status by Beijing.

Asked if he would order U.S. forces to defend Taiwan if China attacked, Mr. Trump demurred. The United States, both Republican and Democratic administrations, have maintained a policy of “strategic ambiguity” on Taiwan — trying not to tip their hands on whether the U.S. would come to the island’s aid in such a scenario.

“You’ll find out if it happens, and he understands the answer to that,” Mr. Trump said of Mr. Xi.

The Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The White House also did not provide further details about when Mr. Xi or Chinese officials have conveyed to Mr. Trump that military action on Taiwan was off-the-table for the duration of the Republican’s presidency.

The “60 Minutes” interview was taped on Friday at Mr. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. It marked Mr. Trump’s first appearance on the show since he settled a lawsuit this summer with CBS News over the newsmagazine’s interview with Kamala Harris.

The rest of the interview is scheduled to air later on Sunday.

The annual summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum adopted a leaders’ declaration as it concluded on Saturday (October 31, 2025), Chinese state media Xinhua reported.

Leaders of 21 Asian and Pacific Rim nations wrapped up their annual economic forum on Saturday (October 31, 2025) after President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed on a temporary truce in their trade war, generating relief around the world.

A source familiar with the matter also confirmed to Reuters that the joint declaration was adopted.

Xinhua reported that the meeting issued outcome documents, including the 2025 APEC Leaders’ Gyeongju Declaration, the APEC Artificial Intelligence Initiative, and the APEC Framework for Cooperation on Population Structure Changes.

This year’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in the South Korean city of Gyeongju was heavily overshadowed by Thursday’s (October 30, 2025) Trump-Xi meeting that ended with the two leaders dialing back their earlier trade steps and de-escalating their trade tensions.

The high-stakes meeting was arranged on the sidelines of APEC. Mr. Trump, known for his dismissal of multilateralism, quickly left South Korea after reaching deals with Mr. Xi, allowing the Chinese President to steal the limelight at the summit.

During the APEC summit’s opening session Friday (October 31, 2025), Mr. Xi said China would support global free trade and supply chain stability in an apparent effort to position his country as an alternative to Mr. Trump’s protectionist policies.

In written remarks sent to a CEO summit held in conjunction with APEC, Mr. Xi said that “Investing in China is investing in the future.” Mr. Xi met his Japanese, Canadian, and Thai counterparts bilaterally on the sidelines of APEC on Friday (October 31, 2025). He also met South Korean President Lee Jae-myung on Saturday (November 1, 2025) for talks that Seoul officials said would touch on efforts to achieve denuclearisation and peace on the Korean Peninsula.

That agenda at the Xi-Lee meeting angered North Korea, a non-APEC member. North Korea’s Vice Foreign Minister Pak Myong Ho on Saturday (November 1, 2025) slammed South Korea for talking about “its daydream” of realising North Korea’s denuclearisation, saying North Korea will show how such a push is “a pipedream” that can never be realised.

Mr. Trump earlier repeatedly expressed his desire to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during his visit to South Korea, but North Korea hasn’t responded.

Mr. Trump and Mr. Kim met three times in 2018-19, but their nuclear diplomacy eventually collapsed. North Korea has since vowed not to place its advancing nuclear program on a negotiating table, but experts say the North would aim for winning extensive sanctions relief in return for a partial surrender of its advancing nuclear programme.

(Inputs from Reuters, AP)