Taiwan president faces more grief from US than China

IN a few weeks, Tsai Ing Wen will mark her first anniversary as president of Taiwan. However, her celebration is likely to be subdued since she is facing intractable problems with the world's two most important powers - China, which is an existential threat to her country; and the US, the guarantor of its security but whose reliability under Donald Trump is open to question.

The Chinese leader Xi Jinping wants her to accept what is known as the 1992 Consensus, under which both Taipei and Beijing accept "one China", with each free to interpret what that means. So Taiwan can say that "China" means the Republic of China, which is Taiwan's formal name, rather than the People's Republic of China. Meanwhile, Beijing has halted cross-strait institutional cooperation.

Mr Trump, the American leader, has blown hot and cold, raising expectations by speaking to her on the telephone last December in an unprecedented call during which she congratulated him on winning the November election and he, in turn, congratulated her on her victory earlier in 2016.