Trump’s China visit allays fears of Taiwan being abandoned

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Headlines from Donald Trump’s visit to China have largely focused on Xi Jinping's warnings of “clashes and conflicts” over Taiwan. But perhaps the silence that followed from Trump is more instructive. Worries that the US president might concede support to Taiwan in order to get Beijing to help him end the war in Iran seem not to have been well-founded. The absence of the self-governing island, which China claims as its own, from the White House readout on Thursday indicates no fundamental change from the US stance of strategic ambiguity. But it is worth withholding praise until it becomes clear what is happening with the $14bn weapons package to Taiwan. Senators have reportedly been waiting for Trump to sign off on it for months.