Hegseth indicates US backing for Taiwan – but it is transactional Trump who has the final word

On Tuesday China's military launched joint drills around Taiwan, sending ships, planes and some bizarre propaganda videos across the strait to both warn and punish Taiwan's government over what Beijing calls "separatist activity". The purported provocation was recent assertiveness by Taiwan's president, Lai Ching-te, who in February designated China a "foreign hostile force" and announced 17 measures to counter its espionage and influence operations. But it probably had another intended audience: Washington, and specifically defence secretary Pete Hegseth. Hegseth had only just left Asia, where he promised "credible deterrence" efforts by the US against China in the Indo-Pacific. "The publicity…