Island breathes sigh of relief as fears recede that US could jettison longstanding support
Trump China visit live – latest updates
Before this week’s summit between the Chinese and US presidents, Taiwan had been cast as the anxious bystander.
Observers suggested that Taipei feared the unpredictable and transactional Donald Trump might overturn Washington’s longstanding support for the island democracy, which Beijing claims as a breakaway province, during Thursday and Friday’s talks.
But while the US president hailed his “great” meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, when the leaders emerged on Thursday afternoon, he took an uncustomarily muted approach as he sidestepped questions on Taiwan. A White House readout of the meeting published later also omitted mention of the country.
