US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday held their first talks since agreeing to a tariff truce last month, discussing trade, Taiwan and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

As China reportedly mulls a ban on Japanese seafood amid a standoff between the Asian neighbors, Taiwan's leader shows support for Tokyo, with his lunch.

That role also means a war over Taiwan could be "cataclysmic," the report warned, potentially "wiping out as much as 10 percent of global GDP"—an unprecedented economic hit in modern times. The authors said the ramifications of such a scenario could be "on par with the 2008 Global Financial Crisis."

A Reuters visual investigation of China's annual naval exercises off the Chinese coast opposite Taiwan shows how Beijing's "shadow navy" of civilian ships is training to help in a mass landing of troops and materiel on the island.

Current law requires elected officials to prove they renounced their former citizenship – which is impossible for those born on the mainland.

For years, China has threatened, cajoled and squeezed democratic Taiwan in an attempt to force it to fold without a costly war across the Taiwan Strait. Japan has mostly toed the US line of “strategic ambiguity”, rarely speaking out and officially saying that the dispute can be resolved through dialogue.

Taiwan Premier Cho Jung-tai said on Tuesday that a "return" to China is not an option for the island's 23 million people, after Chinese President Xi Jinping pressed his country's sovereignty claims in a call with U.