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.”
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
RSS