Trump and Xi have already had a taste of economic confrontation in the form of a trade war, kicked off under the former's first term as U.S. president when he introduced swathes of tariffs against Chinese imports—a move swiftly reciprocated by Beijing. More tariffs are coming in the second term. But there is a far-greater U.S.-China confrontation lurking ominously in the background, one with potentially catastrophic consequences not just for the Indo-Pacific, but for the whole world: A war over Taiwan.
Under its "One China principle," Beijing considers Taiwan a part of China and not an independent state. Its goal is "reunification" and to right what it sees as a wrong stemming from the Chinese Civil War that ended in 1949 with communists in control of Beijing.
