China has reaffirmed that it would oppose any other nation's arms supply to Taiwan. (Reuters)
Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen said a direct phone call with US President Donald Trump could take place again and urged the self-ruled island's political rival China to step up to its global responsibility to keep the peace as a large nation.
"We have the opportunity to communicate more directly with the US government", Tsai told news agency Reuters in an exclusive interview on Thursday.
"We don't exclude the opportunity to call President Trump himself, but it depends on the needs of the situation and the US government's consideration of regional affairs."
Speaking from her Presidential Office, she urged Chinese President Xi Jinping to act like a leader.
"China now needs to have its own sense of responsibility", Tsai said.
"I hope Chairman Xi Jinping, as a leader of a large country and who sees himself as a leader, can show a pattern and flexibility, use a different angle to look at cross-Strait relations, and allow the future of cross-Strait ties to have a different kind of pattern."
The United States remains Taiwan's biggest ally and arms supplier and is bound by legislation to provide the means to help the island defend itself.
Tsai said Taiwan may need to buy advanced F-35 stealth jet fighters from the United States.
China claims Taiwan as its own under its 'one China' policy, but democratic Taiwan, self-ruled since 1949, has no interest in being ruled by autocratic China. Beijing has never renounced the use of force to bring the island under its control.
(Reporting by Jean Yoon and JR Wu, Editing by Bill Tarrant)© Thomson Reuters 2017
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