Former President Donald Trump predicted China would move to take greater control of Taiwan after President Joe Biden demonstrated weakness against Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“By the way, China is gonna be next,” Trump said in an interview with radio hosts Clay Travis and Buck Sexton on Tuesday, during a discussion of Biden’s failure to stop Putin from moving into Ukraine.
When Travis asked Trump if he believed China would “go after” Taiwan, he replied, “Oh, absolutely.”
“They’re waiting ’til after the Olympics,” Trump said. “Now the Olympics ended, and look at your stopwatch, right?”
The former president compared Russia and China to “twin sisters” who both had countries they wanted to assert control over.
“It’s almost like twin sisters right here because you have one that wants Taiwan, I think, equally badly,” he said.
Demonstrators spray paint over an upside down portrait of Chinese leader Xi Jinping during an anti-China protest on October 1, 2021 in Taipei, Taiwan. (Lam Yik Fei/Getty Images)
Trump said he got to know both Putin and Chinese dictator Xi Jinping while he was president.
“I think nobody probably knows him better in terms of the discussions that we have or that we’re having this morning,” Trump said about Putin. “So, I knew him very well. I got to know him. I got to know President Xi.”
In November, Biden vowed to defend Taiwan despite growing Chinese attempts to control the island nation.
But he walked back his comment describing it as “independent” of China.
“We are not encouraging independence,” Biden said afterward, repeatedly saying that “nothing” would happen on the issue of Taiwan.
“Nothing happens. We’re not going to change our policy at all,” he clarified, citing the Taiwan Act.