The most striking feature of the September summit between Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington was not what was discussed—trade, tariffs, technological competition—but what was not. Taiwan was not absent entirely—both sides touched on it in the low-key “agree to disagree” framing register that has come to define the issue—but it was conspicuously absent from the top tier of the agenda.
Pundits continue to portray the Taiwan Strait as the world’s most dangerous flashpoint; the summit’s agenda suggested otherwise.
