TOI correspondent from Washington: US President Donald Trump lumbered back to the White House on Friday bringing back with him seeds of discord from Beijing despite assertions to the contrary. The promise of Chinese rose seeds for the White House Rose Garden from Xi Jinping, meant to be a diplomatic bouquet, instead highlighted the increasingly thorny relationship between the world’s two largest powers after their 36-hour summit was dominated not by trade or tariffs, but by the explosive question of Taiwan.
Although Trump proclaimed his visit to Beijing a “tremendous success” and a “historic moment,” in brief comments to reporters (in contrast to his normally voluble engagement), the US foreign-policy establishment is concluding that the summit exposed a shifting balance of power in which Taiwan has become the central fault line in the US-China relations.
