BEIJING — U.S. President Donald Trump has kept up an uneasy silence about Taiwan following his meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping this week, despite the U.S.' announcement in December of a record $11 billion in arms sales to the island against Beijing's wishes.
Trump had said the Taiwan arms sales would be on the agenda for his talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping which ended on Friday.
But...
The pattern of strategic ambiguity is utilized here to manage high-stakes geopolitical risk while avoiding concrete commitments. The silence from the U.S. and the framing of the discussion around "cooling it down" serves to deflect specific policy commitments while allowing both parties to manage immediate tensions. The tension between the explicit warnings from Beijing and the deliberate vagueness of U.S. policy creates a vacuum where uncertainty about future intervention remains operational. T...
