The White House sees Taiwan as too valuable to bargain away, which is reassuring for Taipei even as US-China trade talks move ahead.

• Washington and Beijing each published their own version of what the Trump-Xi meeting produced, and the two lists clearly don't match.
• Taiwan makes the chips and AI servers that hold up the US economy, so Washington won't risk that access to sell more soybeans and Boeing planes to China.
• Both sides agreed to $30 billion in tariff cuts each, partly to cool US inflation before the midterm elections.
• The tariff truce was extended only two months, a very short arrangement that suggests the two leaders' staff had not worked things out in advance.
• Much of the Taiwan discussion happened behind closed doors, but US officials say Washington's Taiwan policy has not changed.

Outlook: Negotiators meet again in November and December at the APEC and G20 summits, where the short tariff truce will have to be settled or extended.