Some fear that U.S.-Taiwan relations would be downgraded in exchange for a stronger Chinese stance against North Korea’s nuclear weapons program. Katherine Chang, the minister for mainland affairs, tells the Washington Post that Taiwan could become a “bargaining chip” in such a case.

Currently, China views Taiwan as a breakaway province and has not ruled out force as a path to reunification. The U.S. has historically backed the “One China Policy” by refusing to diplomatically recognize Taiwan even though it has maintained an unofficial relationship involving trade.

Taiwan was not mentioned by either Trump or Xi during a joint news conference following their meeting on Thursday.

However, a number of Trump’s advisers have been known to be sympathetic to Taiwan’s concerns and grievances. In early December, Trump broke away from decades of tradition by making a congratulatory phone call to Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen following her election victory. But, Trump has since said he will not engage with the Taiwanese president again without checking in with China first.

Furthermore, Trump and Xi have been enjoying an improved relationship, with Trump even saying both shared “great chemistry.” During a news conference in South Korea on Tuesday, Trump said Xi had “been trying very hard to solve the problem” with North Korea. In fact, the U.S. president has enjoyed some success where predecessors have failed on the North Korean issue. China, which is Pyongyang’s biggest trading partner, recently agreed to cut coal exports with the nation and sever ties with its banks.

When Trump was defending his call with Tsai Ing-wen, he had said that the U.S. stance on the One China Policy would depend on whether he can “make a deal” with Beijing on trade and other issues.

Still, the U.S. and Taiwan have enjoyed some good relations including a $1.42 billion weapons deal agreed on earlier this year. This is one of the reasons some diplomats feel a major shift in U.S. relations with Taiwan is unlikely.

Taipei is also looking forward to increase defense spending, establish a bi-lateral trade agreement with the U.S., and end all trade with North Korea.

But whether Taiwan can become a bargaining chip in the North Korean issue strongly depends on Xi’s decisions.

“Many have debated here in Taiwan whether President Trump will trade Taiwan in exchange for China’s position in North Korea,” said Alexander Huang, chairman of Taiwan’s Council on Strategic and Wargaming Studies. “But my hunch is that even if President Trump makes such an offer, President Xi would say no: ‘Taiwan is not in your hands. It’s in mine.’”

Chinese President Xi Jinping said he has been firmly opposing and preventing Taiwan’s Independence over the past five years in the opening speech of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China delivered on Wednesday. ‘We will never allow anyone, any organization or any political party at any time or in any form, to…

Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered a stern warning to Taiwan Wednesday, saying that Beijing has the will and power to thwart any attempts at independence. Addressing a twice-a-decade gathering of the Communist Party in Beijing, Xi warned that China has “the resolve, the confidence, and the ability to defeat separatist attempts for Taiwan independence in any…

Taiwan president Tsai Ing-wen will visit three Pacific nations in the next month, the foreign ministry said Friday, as fears grow of China influencing its dwindling list of allies. It comes after Panama cut official ties with Taiwan in June, choosing instead to form diplomatic relations with China — leaving the island with only 20 nations…

Taiwan’s government roared back saying it belonged to a sovereign nation and nothing China’s leaders say could ever change that. Officials said the Republic of China, the islands former name, was an independent country with territory spanning Taiwan, a few offshore islands close to China, and even some in the South China Sea — a region with islands several nations lay claim to, but where China calls the lion’s share and builds its military.

In the eyes of Beijing, Taiwan is still a rogue province of China. And full military force has never been taken off the table as an option for reunification. Chinese-Taiwanese relations seem even more dire under the leadership of independence-leaning president Tsai Ing-wen. Even though part of her voter base was driven sharply by calls for independence, she has publicly stated she hopes to maintain peace with China.

Beijing, however, made it clear this peace could erode any moment.

Ma Xiaoguang, spokesman for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, said:  “Taiwan is an inseparable part of Chinese territory, has never been a country and can never become a country.

“The mainland side resolutely opposes any form of ‘Taiwan independence’ words or action, and will never allow the historical tragedy of national separation to repeat itself. The consequences will be reaped for engaging in Taiwan independence separatist.”

Lee Ming-Che has not been heard from for 23 days. On Monday, China revoked his wife’s travel permit shortly before she got on a flight to Beijing where she was planning to speak with authorities about her husband’s whereabouts.

According to China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, Lee is being held on suspicion that he engaged in activities that endangered national security. But Taiwanese officials want to know more.

This conflict further damages the already strained, nearly non-existent, relationship between Beijing and Taipei. Neither party has formally recognized the other for more than 70 years and China still regards Taiwan as a breakaway province under its control.

“We urge the mainland Chinese side to look at this issue correctly and respond immediately including with a speedy disclosure of the real reasons and location of detention as well as let family visit as soon as possible to avoid complicating matters and even causing impacts that neither side wants to see,” Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council said in a statement Monday.

Lee is long-time activist, a philosophy scholar, and a former worker for Taiwan’s ruling party – one that many critics view as independence leaning, even though President Tsai Ing-wen never publicly endorsed autonomy. China and Taiwan have not exchanged official dialogue since she took office last May.

Lee’s colleagues say he went missing on March 19 after taking a flight from Taipei to the Chinese territory of Macau. They say he was on his way to Guangzhou to visit friends and buy Chinese medicine for his mother in-law.

But his activities in Taiwan were quite extensive, according to some of his contacts. One fellow human rights worker said he visited China once a year in the past decade to assist Chinese lawyers in human rights cases. Since July 2015, Chinese authorities have targeted more than 200 human rights lawyers and activists in a nationwide crackdown, says the advocacy group Amnesty International.

Taiwan’s military monitored the Liaoning as it passed through the 100-mile strait, and its Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ).

Beijing considers self-governed Taiwan a breakaway province that can be taken by force at any time. China currently has thousands of missiles pointed at the island. However, Taiwan urged its people to remain calm.

Chang Hsiao-Yueh, head of Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council, said the authorities were closely monitoring China’s actions.

“I want to emphasize that our government has sufficient capability to protect our national security,” Chang said. “It is not necessary to overly panic. On the other hand, any threats would not benefit cross-strait ties at all. Together we should show mutual good will.”

China has spoken of “increased levels of uncertainty” regarding cross strait affairs. Relations between the two have not alleviated since Tsai ing-Wen of the independence-leaning DDP party won the presidential election in Taiwan. Tensions further escalated when she met with American officials during a weekend visit to Central America in spite of condemnation from China.

Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen is making a four-country tour of Taiwan’s allies in central America, visiting Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala, and El Salvador. But first, a pit stop in the United States. President Tsai stayed overnight in Houston, Texas Saturday, exchanging gifts with Governor Abbott Sunday.

President Tsai presented the governor with a lovely vase from her home island, and Governor Abbott? Well, he presented something not so lovely.

Abbott gave president Tsai a clock bearing the Texas state seal, according to the governor’s office. This may seem like an innocuous or even nice gift, but if Abbott had bothered to do his homework on his guest he would have known that giving a clock as a gift to a person from Chinese-speaking nations, especially Taiwan, China, and Hong Kong, is a huge n0-no.

This is because in both Mandarin and Cantonese the word for “clock” 鐘 is pronounced the same as the word for “end”, 終. So, “giving [the gift of] a clock” 送鐘 sounds the same as sending someone off to their end 送終. Clocks also signify that time is running out, as if you are blatantly pointing out to the receiver that his/her time is running out. If these are not reasons to abandon your clock gift, then I don’t know what is.

While President Tsai may have handled the gift-exchange with diplomacy and poise, Governor Abbott should have understood the cultural implications of such a gift, saving himself the embarrassment of this massive blunder.

Tsai Ing-wen will make a stopover in San Francisco on her way back to Taiwan. Hopefully Governor Abbott is not there to greet her – or if he is, please don’t make it be with a clock.

Trump has appointed Peter Navarro as director of trade and industrial policy for the newly-created National Trade Council. Who is this man? He’s a UC Irvine professor and one of Trump’s top economic advisors during his campaign. He’s also the author of such titles as “Death by China: Confronting the Dragon – A Global Call to Action,” “Crouching Tiger: What China’s Militarism Means for the World,” and “The Coming China Wars: Where They Will Be Fought, How They Can Be Won.”

Navarro will be tasked with contributing to the creation of trade policies that “shrink our trade deficit, expand our growth and help stop the exodus of jobs from our shores,” according to a statement from Trump’s transition team.

But the economic sector is not the only front where Trump has continued his competition against Beijing. He recently said the U.S. can change course on supporting the One China Policy – the idea which makes Taiwan a breakaway province of China which may be taken back by force.

In response, China began beefing up its military presence above international airspace above Taiwan. This came ahead of Trump’s historic phone call with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen – the move broke decades of policy norm in which there was no official contact between top American and Taiwanese officials.

But Beijing has more to scratch their heads about. A senior Taiwanese official recently announced that Tsai was planning to land on U.S. soil with a 90-strong delegation to meet with members of the United States Congress.

Today, a senior Taiwanese official announced President Tsai Ing-wen and a 90-strong delegation plan to land on U.S. soil to meet members of Congress. Beijing believes Taiwan is nothing more than a renegade province ultimately under its control, and the U.S. supports its so called “One China Policy.”

Hua Chunying, China’s foreign ministry spokeswoman said such a move would “send wrong signals to Taiwan independence forces.” The Communist country began beefing up its military presence around the international airspace above Taiwan, after United States President-elect Donald Trump said the U.S. can change course on the One China Policy. The U.S. does not share formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. It doesn’t even officially host Taiwanese leaders.

Now, officials in Beijing and D.C. are speculating whether the Taiwanese president would cross paths with Trump and members of his emerging administration– an unprecedented move that will undoubtedly infuriate China and put it on guard.

“Going forward, China-US relations will face new complexities and uncertain factors … Only if China and the US respect each and consider [the] other’s core interests and key concerns can there be long-term, stable cooperation,” said Wang Yi, China’s foreign minister, in a People’s Daily interview.

China, which has long been suspicious of Tsai’s Democratic Progressive Party, believes that the president will use her time in the U.S. to rally diplomatic and political opposition to the Communist regime in Beijing.

Tsai called for unity during a closed meeting with the DPP. “At a time of change, national solidarity across party lines is increasingly needed to fight against foreign forces,” a party spokesman, Yang Chia-liang, quoted Tsai as saying. “China has never stopped suppressing Taiwan’s international participation and diplomatic efforts.”

While speaking at a national defense committee, Javier Hou, deputy foreign minister, said Tsai’s planned trip to the U.S. would be made in accordance with past practice.