U.S. to hold trade talks with Taiwan

The U.S. government announced it will hold trade talks with Taiwan on Thursday as the island’s troops ran drills for scenarios involving a Chinese missile strike. China views Taiwan as its territory and discourages other countries from having contact with the self-governing island. Taiwan’s foreign ministry called the trade talks a “new page” in the island’s relations with the United States. 

What will the trade deal do? The U.S. has recognized Beijing as the government of all of China but maintains informal relations with democratic Taiwan. The Biden administration’s coordinator for the Indo-Pacific region said the trade deal would “deepen ties” with the island. The White House said it has not changed its policy of no official diplomatic relations with Taiwan—the United States’s ninth largest trading partner. The deal may help strengthen Taiwan as China blocked imports of the island’s citrus and other food in retaliation for U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s Aug. 2 visit. The blocked goods account for less than 0.5 percent of Taiwan’s exports to China. 

Dig deeper: Read Carolina Lumetta’s report in The Stew on Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan.