In a stark departure from past China-US summits, Taiwan did not rate a mention on Thursday, prompting speculation that Xi Jinping and Donald Trump had arrived at a tacit and pragmatic understanding to deprioritise the contentious issue.
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Taiwan – regarded by Beijing as a core interest and “the first red line that cannot be crossed” in bilateral relations – has in recent years occupied a few lines in official readouts following face-to-face meetings between the countries’ leaders, but not in Busan, South Korea, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.
After he met Xi, Trump told reporters “Taiwan never came up”, despite the in-person discussion being their first since the US leader returned to the White House in January.
The Chinese readout, released by state news agency Xinhua, also made no mention of Taiwan. That is unusual, given that Beijing has previously used such occasions to restate its position at length and warn Washington against supporting “Taiwan independence” or arming the island.
Beijing sees Taiwan as part of China to be reunited by force if necessary. Most countries, including the United States, do not recognise Taiwan as an independent state, but Washington is opposed to any attempt to take the self-ruled island by force and is committed to supplying it with weapons.
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