Did US pressure before Xi-Trump summit force KMT hand on Taiwan’s defence budget?

Pressure from Washington was likely to have played a decisive role in Taiwan’s opposition parties backing a sharply expanded special defence budget last week, analysts said, as concerns mount in Taipei ahead of a summit between US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping. The anxiety centres on potential concessions from Trump this week in exchange for economic gains from Beijing, which views Taiwan as a core interest and the “biggest risk” in ties with the US, and has kept...