Why Taiwan became the defining issue in the Trump-Xi talks

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 after the two leaders' first day of meetings on Thursday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told NBC News the topic " did not feature primarily in today's discussion." The initial White House readout also did not mention Taiwan - home to manufacturers of some of the world's most advanced semiconductors - although Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC he expected Trump would say more on Taiwan in coming days. The silence persisted — more than 24 hours after China published its official readout with a stark warning from Xi that mishandling Taiwan would put the U.S.-China relationship in " great jeopardy ." "This is a pretty direct and strong comment by President Xi," Wendy Cutler, former acting deputy U.S. trade representative, said Friday on CNBC's " The China Connection ." "The way I interpret it too is that he really tied economic stability to developments with respect to Taiwan," she said. Beijing's readout of the closing Trump-Xi meeting Friday morning emphasized the benefits of cooperation and did not mention Taiwan . …