The head of Taiwan's delegation to next week's inauguration of Donald Trump as U.S. president said on Saturday he was going there to extend the island's "highest blessings" to the United States.

Taiwan carried out its first execution in five years late on Thursday, upsetting both rights groups and the European Union which called on the government to maintain its de facto moratorium on the death penalty.

Manila and Taipei, facing PLA confrontations, may need to depend less on the US and appeal to Trump’s transactional nature, analysts say.

Another U.S.-aligned democracy in Asia is mired in political gridlock, with Taiwan’s opposition challenging defense spending aimed at fending off China.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping discussed issues including TikTok, trade and Taiwan in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump takes office again promising tariffs that could ratchet up tensions between the world's two biggest economies.

Taiwan, officially known as the Republic of China (ROC), is an island separated from China by the Taiwan Strait. Mainland China, officially the People’s Republic of China (PRC), is under Chinese Communist Party (CCP) rule and asserts that Taiwan is an integral part of its territory, though it has never governed the island.

Taiwan will dispatch its navy if needed to help the coast guard respond to any suspicious activity near undersea communication cables, Defence Minister Wellington Koo said on Thursday, after a Chinese-linked ship was suspected of damaging one.

Waging World War III for Taiwan—or any small nation, for that matter—would not be in keeping with the predilections and preferences of the incoming US president.

BEIJING (Reuters) - China will resume group tours to Taiwan by residents of Shanghai and Fujian province in the near future and preparations are underway for that, Chinese state media said on Friday.

It was suppose to be a ‘’warm-up’’ competition for Olympian Johnathan Wong at the Southeast Asia Shooting Association (SEASA) championships but he was on a hot run.

Donald Trump has told advisers he wants to travel to China after taking office, according to people familiar with the discussions, as he seeks to deepen a relationship with Xi Jinping strained by tariff threats.