The United States may postpone major arms sales to Taiwan, with the package a possible bargaining point as Chinese President 
Xi Jinping prepares to travel to Washington this week for talks with 
Donald Trump. Washington is considering holding the announcement until after November's APEC summit in Shenzhen, the Taipei Times reported, citing a Saturday report in the South China Morning Post. China has kept pressing Trump to put off US$14 billion in arms sales to Taiwan, the New York Times reported on Sept. 21 in a story carried by the Liberty Times.
What did the reports say about Taiwanese officials? Some Taiwanese officials visiting the US were asked by Trump administration officials to cut back on visits to Washington think tanks, Ryan Hass, a former China director at the US National Security Council, said in remarks carried by the New York Times. Hass is now a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.
How did the Kuomintang respond? Chen I-hsin, who heads the Kuomintang's (KMT) culture and communications committee, said President 
Lai Ching-te's inability so far to transit the US mainland, delayed arms sales and the reported think-tank curbs showed ties faced "severe challenges," calling the government's claim of the "best ever" relations self-deception. He accused Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung of naively equating US and Taiwanese interests, CNA reported.
What did the foreign ministry say? The government was not deceiving itself, and official channels with the US executive branch had always been open, ministry spokesman Hsiao Kuang-wei said at a regular briefing on Sept. 22. Hsiao said he did not know which "severe challenges" the KMT meant, and that the US had repeatedly stressed the arms sales were still in progress. Any US transit on a presidential trip to diplomatic allies must fit the president's itinerary, and arrangements would be started once the timing was ripe and where feasible, he said. Ahead of the Sept. 24 summit, the ministry said it would keep closely watching exchanges between US and Chinese leaders.
What did other officials say? Reading a rift into a single media report reflects a habit of "doubting the US at every turn" that may itself be out of touch with actual diplomacy, an official handling foreign affairs said on Sept. 22, CNA reported. The official said Minister of Digital Affairs Lin Yi-jing led a delegation to Washington in early and mid-September that met US executive agencies and think tanks including the Hudson Institute and CSIS.
Figures referenced: Donald Trump, Xi Jinping, Lai Ching-te. — JudgeMarket.
