Late July brought a series of setbacks for the Lai administration of Taiwan. After the disastrous failure of the first round of recall votes of the “Great Recall Movement” on July 26, the Trump administration in the United States imposed 20 percent tariffs on Taiwan, part of a wider announcement of tariffs on major trading partners. More unusually, a planned trip by President Lai Ching-te that would have involved a stopover in the United States was canceled, reportedly because the Trump administration did not want to upset China as the two side pursue trade negotiations.

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