China is using a Pentagon itinerary as structural leverage, and Taiwan remains front and center as the key geopolitical snag in bettering communications and relations between Beijing and Washington.
According to a Financial Times report published Thursday, China is actively holding up a proposed visit by Elbridge Colby, the Pentagon's under-secretary of defense for policy. The move is a transparent effort to pressure President Trump over a looming $14 billion weapons package for Taiwan.
While Colby had been actively discussing a summer trip to Beijing with Chinese officials, China has effectively frozen the process and logistics. Sources familiar with the talks report that Beijing has signaled it "cannot approve a visit until Trump decides how he will proceed with the arms package."
Trump admin officials have been quick to point out that Trump has approved "the sale of more weapons to Taiwan than any other US president." And so it appears that such bravado should come with a cost, in Beijing's apparent thinking.
And yet, Trump has repeatedly publicly touted his personal relationship with Chinese President Xi Jinping as "amazing" - though his recent Beijing trip did nothing to ultimately produce a breakthrough.
Trump, upon returning from his trip earlier this month, stated that he "has not decided whether to proceed with the major weapons sale," injecting a fresh wave of strategic ambiguity over US support for the self-ruled island.
He also in an interview with Fox News' Bret Baier had stated that he doesn't want "to travel 9,500 miles to fight a war" over Taiwan.
"I'm not looking to have somebody to go independent and, you know, we're supposed to travel 9,500 miles to fight a war," Trump told Baier. "I'm not looking for that. I want them to cool down. I want China to cool down."
Taiwan remains critically important to Washington because it is not only a semiconductor production supernode, but also a geopolitical fortress against China and a potential flashpoint in US-China relations. But China hawks have questioned Trump's resolve and where he stands, related to the scenario of potential direct Chinse aggression against Taiwan.
Trump's rhetoric on Taiwan before and after his summit with President Xi has raised eyebrows in Washington...
Geopolitical risk analyst Ian Bremmer has also lately weighed in. He has speculated: "This is Trump's perspective: the only thing that matters about Taiwan is the chips. Very different from the view of U.S. allies in the region: Japan, South Korea, and Australia."