China-Taiwan Straits relations

The drill coincided with Taiwan wrapping up its largest and most realistic annual military exercises, the 10-day Han Kuang war games.

The historical and ongoing conflict between the US, China, and Taiwan is defined by decades of shifting diplomatic recognition.

The high-stakes trip focused primarily on the ongoing Iran war, trade relations, AI controls and the cross-strait tensions surrounding Taiwan.

This was the first KMT-CCP leader-level meeting in a decade.

It will be the first visit by a sitting KMT leader to China since 2016, when then-leader Hung Hsiu-chu met with Xi.

In Jan 2026, Chinese leader Xi Jinping escalated what analysts are calling the most significant military purge in half a century.

China-Japan relations have fluctuated between cooperation and conflict for centuries, yet economic interdependence often tempered escalation until the 2025 crisis sparked by PM Takaichi’s remarks.