Taiwan

U.S. President Donald Trump changed tack and agreed to honor the "one China" policy during a phone call with China's leader Xi Jinping, a major diplomatic boost for Beijing which brooks no criticism of its claim to self-ruled Taiwan. 

Neither side would emerge victorious from conflict between China and the United States, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Tuesday.

According to Reuters, he was "seeking to dampen tension between the two nations that flared after the election of US President Donald Trump."

Taiwan aspires to create a "new era" of peace with China, which should set aside the baggage of history and have positive dialogue, Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen said in a letter to Pope Francis, adding military action cannot resolve problems. 

Taiwan's defense minister warned Dec. 27 that enemy threats were growing daily after China's aircraft carrier and a flotilla of other warships passed south of the island in an exercise as tensions rise.  

Taiwan's parliament on Dec. 26 passed the first draft of a controversial marriage equality bill, moving the island a step closer to becoming the first place in Asia to legalize same-sex nuptials.

China should plan to take Taiwan by force and make swift preparations for a military incursion, a Communist party-controlled newspaper has said, after U.S. president-elect Donald Trump broke decades of diplomatic protocol in the region.

China expressed "serious concern" on Dec. 12 after U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said the United States did not necessarily have to stick to its long-held stance that Taiwan is part of "one China," calling it the basis for relations.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump spoke by phone with President Tsai Ing-wen of Taiwan, but China, which considers the self-ruled island its own, said it was confident Washington's "one China" policy would not change.

A massive typhoon left one person dead in eastern China on Sept. 28, a day after killing four and injuring more than 600 in Taiwan, where authorities remained on alert for the possibility of a landslide.

Archaeologists in Taiwan have found a 4,800-year-old human fossil of a mother holding an infant child in her arms, museum officials said on April 26.