Washington Post: In a Fox News interview after his trip to China, Trump said he was holding a pending $14 billion arms sale to Taiwan “in abeyance” and that approval “depends on China.” He called the package a “very good negotiating chip.”
The phrasing matters. Trump appeared to suggest that weapons Taiwan has requested to buy, and that the United States has an interest in delivering, could be used to extract concessions from Beijing. That isn’t hard-nosed bargaining. It is a dangerous misunderstanding of deterrence…