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ExclusiveThe art of the deal: how Beijing pushed Trump to ‘arrest’ the trend on Taiwan arms sales
US president’s recent visit was seen as a prime opportunity to rein in the size of the weapons deliveries and avoid setting a precedent
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Dewey Simin WashingtonPublished: 6:00pm, 29 May 2026Updated: 6:49pm, 29 May 2026
When US President Donald Trump returned from Beijing earlier this month, he hailed his visit as a historic breakthrough, trumpeting the “fantastic trade deals” he sealed and boasting about his close ties with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
But on the margins, Beijing had sought to extract a price by pushing Washington for concessions on Taiwan.
According to people familiar with the matter, Beijing pressed Washington to reduce the size of the arms packages sold to Taiwan and slow the pace of approvals, expressing dissatisfaction with the record deals approved in Trump’s second term.Advertisement
Sources said Chinese officials raised the demand as early as the beginning of this year – before the Trump visit was pushed back to May over the Iran war – while also insisting Washington hold off on any Taiwan arms approvals before and after the trip.
The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to comment publicly, said Beijing took particular aim at the size of the Trump-era arms packages, signalling a preference for the smaller, more targeted approvals made during Joe Biden’s presidency.
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One source said Beijing was keen to “arrest the trend line” on the record arms packages of Trump’s second term.
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