The art of the deal: how Beijing pushed Trump to ‘arrest’ the trend on Taiwan arms sales

When US President Donald Trump returned from Beijing earlier this month, he hailed his visit as a historic breakthrough, trumpeting “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,...