When President Xi Jinping met US President Donald Trump in Busan, their first face-to-face encounter since Trump’s return to the White House, the meeting was notable for what they didn’t say. The conspicuous absence of Taiwan from official readouts dominated headlines back then.

Now as the planned Xi-Trump summit in Beijing approaches this week, that silence has been replaced by a thunderous clarification. Through high-level meetings on May 7 with US Senator Steve Daines, a key Trump ally whose trip is widely viewed as a prelude to the presidential visit, Beijing re-established its boundaries on Taiwan.

The message delivered to Daines by Premier Li Qiang and top legislator Zhao Leji was loud and clear: that Taiwan is at the very core of China’s core interests and the first and foremost red line that must not be crossed in China-US relations. Beijing is reminding Washington that a steady, sound and sustainable relationship is predicated entirely on adhering to the one-China principle and the three China-US joint communiques – specifically, the 1982 communique committed the US to gradually reducing arms sales to Taiwan.

This serves as a timely reminder to Washington, which has long played the Taiwan card by twisting UN Resolution 2758, dismissing the Cairo Declaration, and failing to honour its pledge to reduce arms sales.

While Trump’s analogy – comparing Taiwan to the tip of his Sharpie pen and the Chinese mainland to his desk – was meant to highlight the cross-strait power gap, it captures a different geopolitical reality. In this context, the “desk” represents the vast international community, including the US government, all of which officially recognise the one-China principle; meanwhile, the “pen tip” symbolises the dwindling handful of capitals that maintain formal diplomatic ties with Taipei.

Xi has consistently underscored that mishandling Taiwan would not just strain China-US ties but upend them entirely. In recent communications with Trump, in late 2025 and early 2026, Xi emphasised that Taiwan’s return to China is an integral part of the post-war international order.