President Trump said this week that he would speak to Taiwan’s president, Lai Ching-te, a move that would break longstanding diplomatic norms and risk retaliation from China.

特朗普本周表示，他将与台湾总统赖清德通话，此举将打破长期以来的外交惯例，并有可能引发中国的报复。

“I’ll speak to him,” Mr. Trump told reporters when asked whether he would call Mr. Lai before deciding on an arms sale to the self-governing democracy. “I speak to everybody,” he said, adding later, “We’ll work that, the Taiwan problem.”

当被问及在做出是否向这个自治民主政体出售武器的决定前会不会致电赖清德时，特朗普对记者表示：“我会和他通话。”他还说：“我跟所有人都通话。”随后他补充道：“我们会处理这件事、台湾问题。”

Responding on Thursday morning, Taiwan’s foreign ministry said Mr. Lai would be happy to speak to Mr. Trump.

台湾外交部周四上午回应称，赖清德非常乐意与特朗普通话。

It was the second time in a week that Mr. Trump said he intended to speak to Taiwan’s leader. Mr. Trump first raised the possibility while returning from his summit in Beijing with President Xi Jinping of China.

这是特朗普一周内第二次表示他打算与台湾领导人通话。特朗普首次提出这一可能性是在他从北京与中国国家主席习近平举行峰会后的返回途中。

“I have to speak to the person that right now is — you know who he is — that’s running Taiwan,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One after leaving China, in an apparent reference to Mr. Lai.

“我必须和那个现在——你们都知道他是谁——正在掌管台湾的人谈谈，”离开中国后，他在“空军一号”上对记者说，这显然是在指赖清德。

Mr. Lai’s office has not received communication from the United States regarding a phone call, his senior aide, Pan Men-an, said on Thursday in response to a lawmaker’s question at a legislative hearing in Taipei.

赖清德的高级幕僚潘孟安周四在台北的立法院听证会上回应立法委员提问时表示，赖清德办公室尚未收到美国方面关于通话的讯息。

Any such call would infuriate China, which claims Taiwan as its territory and opposes contact between Taiwanese and foreign leaders. It would also mark the first direct dialogue between sitting American and Taiwanese presidents in many decades, breaking with longstanding U.S. practices excluding top-level contacts with Taiwan.

任何此类通话都将激怒中国。中国声称台湾是其领土，反对台湾领导人与外国领导人之间的接触。这也将是数十年来美台两国在任总统之间的首次直接对话，打破了美国长期以来不与台湾进行最高级别接触的惯例。

No sitting U.S. president has spoken directly with a Taiwanese president since at least 1979, when Washington severed diplomatic ties with Taiwan as part of recognizing the People’s Republic of China. Even before then, American and Taiwanese presidents generally communicated indirectly through aides or letters and telegrams. Taiwan’s authoritarian leader, Chiang Kai-shek, met President Dwight D. Eisenhower in Taiwan in 1960.

至少自1979年以来，美国在任总统从未直接与台湾总统通过话。那一年，华盛顿与台湾断绝外交关系，转而承认中华人民共和国。即便在那之前，美台总统通常也是通过助手或书信、电报进行间接沟通。台湾威权领导人蒋介石曾于1960年在台湾会见了美国总统德怀特·艾森豪威尔。

Mr. Trump last spoke with a Taiwanese leader in 2016, when he was president-elect and Tsai Ing-wen, then Taiwan’s president, congratulated him on his election victory by telephone. He was believed to be the first president or president-elect to speak with a Taiwanese leader since 1979.

特朗普上一次与台湾领导人通话是在2016年。当时他还是候任总统，时任台湾总统蔡英文致电祝贺他赢得大选。据信，他是美国自1979年以来第一位与台湾领导人通话的总统/候任总统。

The call drew surprise and disbelief from China. “We believe it’s a petty action by the Taiwan side,” Wang Yi, China’s foreign minister, said at the time.

那次通话让中国感到意外和难以置信。“这只是台湾方面搞的一个小动作，”中国外长王毅当时表示。

On Thursday, Guo Jiakun, a spokesman for China’s foreign ministry, told reporters that China opposed the U.S. arms sale to Taiwan as well as any official exchanges between the two sides. The package includes missiles, anti-drone equipment and air defense systems intended to bolster the island against military threats from China.

周四，中国外交部发言人郭嘉昆对记者表示，中国反对美国对台军售，也反对美台之间的任何官方往来。此次军售方案包括导弹、反无人机设备以及防空系统，旨在增强该岛抵御中国军事威胁的能力。

During the summit, Mr. Xi warned that support for Taiwan would damage U.S.-China relations. He told Mr. Trump that if China’s concerns over the island were mishandled, the two countries could clash.

峰会期间，习近平警告，支持台湾将损害美中关系。他告诉特朗普，如果在台湾问题上处理不当，两国可能会发生冲突。

After leaving Beijing, Mr. Trump said that he had discussed the arms deal with Mr. Xi and described it as a “negotiating chip” that could be used against Beijing, remarks that raised questions about the reliability of American support.

离开北京后，特朗普表示，他曾与习近平讨论过这项军售协议，并称其为一个可以用来对付北京的“谈判筹码”，这一言论引发了外界对美国支持可靠性的质疑。