US to hold trade talks with Taiwan, island drills military:
Taiwanese soldiers operate a Oerlikon 35mm twin cannon anti-aircraft gun at a base in Taiwan’s southeastern Hualien county on Thursday, Aug. 18, 2022. (AP Photo/Johnson Lai)
The US will hold trade talks with Taiwan as a sign of support for the small nation which China claims to be its own territory. This announcement comes after China blocked imports of Taiwanese food products and fired missiles into the sea as an act of intimidation against Taiwan when US Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi visited the island earlier this month. Chinese President Xi Jinping’s government has criticized the negotiations due to its stance being that Taiwan has no right to interact with foreign nations and that these negotiations are a threat to China’s sovereignty. China warned the US that encouraging the island to make its de facto independence permanent will lead to war. A second group of US Senators led by Ed Markey, a Democrat from Massachusetts, arrived in Taiwan on Sunday and met with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen. While the US’s policy regarding Taiwan is not changing, the trade talks can be expected to deepen diplomatic relations and informal ties. If the talks succeed in increasing exports to the US then they will allow Taiwan to blunt China’s efforts to use its status as Taiwan’s largest trading partner as political leverage.