Overview
- President Trump said "Taiwan never came up" during his roughly 100‑minute meeting with President Xi on the sidelines of APEC in Busan.
- The official Chinese readout released by Xinhua also omitted any reference to Taiwan, a departure from past summit practice.
- Taiwan’s Presidential Office welcomed the omission as stabilizing for now, with spokeswoman Karen Kuo expressing support for preserving the status quo.
- The leaders reported economic steps, including China pausing certain rare‑earth export controls and Trump cutting a fentanyl‑related tariff on China from 20% to 10%.
- Experts described the silence as pragmatic rather than a policy shift, noting Beijing’s stated opposition to Taiwan independence and pointing to planned leader meetings where the issue could reappear.