U.S. Presses Ahead With Taiwan Trade Talks Amid Warnings From China

The United States pressed ahead with formal trade negotiations with Taiwan this month despite repeated opposition from China, which claims the island as its own. Representatives from both governments met in New York City on November 8 and 9 for closed-door talks under the U.S.-Taiwan Initiative on 21st-Century Trade, a bilateral framework launched in June. In the past months, the Biden administration has taken the first steps to address its lack of institutional trade engagement in the Asia-Pacific, where China enjoys the largest influence, while the negotiations with Taiwan could pull the island further away from Beijing’s economic orbit. The…