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Welcome back to Foreign Policy’s Situation Report.

Here’s what’s on tap for the day: Trump and Xi share contrasting messages on Taiwan, Latvia’s government gets a shake-up, and Israel vows to sue the New York Times.

Welcome back to Foreign Policy’s Situation Report.

Here’s what’s on tap for the day: Trump and Xi share contrasting messages on Taiwan, Latvia’s government gets a shake-up, and Israel vows to sue the New York Times.

U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping had no shortage of topics to discuss when they met in Beijing on Thursday, the first visit to China by a U.S. president in nearly a decade. But the two sides chose to focus on somewhat different sets of issues in their respective readouts and diverged particularly sharply on the question of Taiwan.

Continued U.S. support for the island, which China claims, loomed large over the bilateral talks largely focused on trade, technology, and the Iran war. According to Beijing’s readout of the meeting, Xi told Trump that “the Taiwan question is the most important issue in China-U.S. relations,” adding that the notion of Taiwanese independence and peace between Taiwan and China “are as irreconcilable as fire and water.” Xi urged “extra caution” from the United States in its handling of Taiwan.

Trump may have over indexed on that caution: The U.S. readout of the meeting did not mention Taiwan at all, with the only strait mentioned being the Strait of Hormuz. The U.S. president also ignored a reporter’s question about whether Taiwan was discussed.

Whither weapons? Trump’s strategic silence may be seen as the best-case scenario for China watchers within and outside his administration, considering his mixed messages on Taiwan in the lead-up to the visit.

Trump raised alarm bells ahead of the trip when he repeatedly said he would discuss U.S. weapons sales to Taiwan with Xi, potentially flouting one of the key principles of U.S.-Taiwan relations known as the “Six Assurances” given to Taiwan by former President Ronald Reagan in 1982. The second of those six assurances explicitly states that the United States has “not agreed” to consult with China on arms sales to Taiwan.

Trump also held off on approving a $14 billion weapons package for Taiwan ahead of his China visit, which would be the largest-ever U.S. weapons sale to Taiwan. However, the current record........

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