The latest phone conversation between US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping (習近平) focused on easing bilateral trade tensions and is unlikely to lead to a major shift in Washington’s Taiwan policy, analysts said.
Former American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) chairman Richard Bush said via e-mail that the talks on Thursday were primarily aimed at preventing US-China relations from getting worse, particularly after Washington imposed export controls shortly after the “Geneva understanding.”
Bush, a nonresident senior fellow at the Washington-based Brookings Institution think tank, said both sides were trying to “get back to where things were at the end of Geneva” through the call.
Photo: AP
Washington and Beijing last month reached a temporary deal during talks in Geneva, Switzerland, which led to a 90-day truce on sweeping tariffs they had previously imposed on each other.
China later said the US breached the deal by banning semiconductor sales to Huawei while Washington continued to complain about Beijing’s export controls on rare earth minerals and magnets.
As for Taiwan, Bush said Xi routinely brought up Taiwan in conversations with US presidents, but that segment was likely brief in the latest call, given that the two had a host of pressing trade issues to address.
Ryan Hass, another analyst at Brookings, said he “do[es] not expect that the presidential phone call will result in any major shifts in American policy toward Taiwan.”
Hass served as the director for China, Taiwan and Mongolia affairs at the US National Security Council from 2013 to 2017.
He pointed to the transcript of the call issued by Beijing and said Trump’s response to Xi’s concern over Taiwan “signaled continuity in longstanding American policy.”
The transcript said Xi urged the US to “handle the Taiwan question with prudence” and prevent “Taiwan independence” forces from “drag[ging] China and America into the dangerous terrain of confrontation and even conflict.”
The transcript cited Trump as saying that “he has great respect for President Xi ... The US will honor the one-China policy.”
Commenting on the call, the first between the two leaders since Trump began his second term in January, the Presidential Office in a brief statement on Friday said that it welcomed any “efforts that help stabilize the regional situation and curb authoritarian expansion.”
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
The next minimum wage hike is expected to exceed NT$30,000, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday during an award ceremony honoring “model workers,” including migrant workers, at the Presidential Office ahead of Workers’ Day today. Lai said he wished to thank the awardees on behalf of the nation and extend his most sincere respect for their hard work, on which Taiwan’s prosperity has been built. Lai specifically thanked 10 migrant workers selected for the award, saying that although they left their home countries to further their own goals, their efforts have benefited Taiwan as well. The nation’s industrial sector and small businesses lay
Quarantine awareness posters at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport have gone viral for their use of wordplay. Issued by the airport branch of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency, the posters feature sniffer dogs making a range of facial expressions, paired with advisory messages built around homophones. “We update the messages for holidays and campaign needs, periodically refreshing materials to attract people’s attention,” quarantine officials said. “The aim is to use the dogs’ appeal to draw focus to quarantine regulations.” A Japanese traveler visiting Taiwan has posted a photo on X of a poster showing a quarantine dog with a
RSS