No call with Taiwan, no new arms sales: how Trump is preparing to welcome Xi

Two people familiar with the matter said there had been no movement towards arranging such a conversation, which was reliant on the American leader’s willingness to take the initiative.

Three other sources said the US believed that a call with Lai could derail an expected summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Washington in September and the detente reached between the two presidents in May.

There is precedent for such possibilities – Beijing gave the incoming Trump administration the cold shoulder in late 2016 when the president-elect took a congratulatory phone call from Taiwan’s then-leader, Tsai Ing-wen.

The call was the first direct contact of its kind since 1979 and Beijing responded by lodging a formal diplomatic protest and criticising the call as a “small trick” by Taiwan.

The apparent restraint this time around goes beyond high-level contacts. Multiple sources suggested that no new US arms-sale announcements for Taiwan were likely in the near term, either. However, some packages are expected to be announced or approved afterwards.

When asked on Wednesday when a Trump-Lai call could happen, Taiwanese Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung said he could not speak for Trump but “we are ready to have a call at any time”.