David Perdue says pledges to Taiwan will be honoured, while promising ‘some pain’ in White House strategy to deal its with Asian rival.

Taiwan has long been the most tense flashpoint between Washington and Beijing. By law, the U.S. is required to help Taiwan defend its democracy. This week, China’s People’s Liberation Army launched new drills and sent ships around Taiwan.

In addition to facing new tariffs and landing at the top of President Trump's list of "bad actors" in his tariff announcement, China has another reason to be angry: Taiwan was listed as a country. Even before Beijing has officially weighed in on the 34% tariff announced by Trump,

The exercise was “to test the joint combat readiness” of the Command‘s forces and be a “stern warning” against Taiwanese separatism.

China's launches drills around Taiwan to "severely punish" the island's pro-independence leader, as the U.S. boosts its war footing in Japan to deter Chinese "aggression."

Chinese goods were already subject to a 20% levy at the U.S. border. Trump imposed an additional 34% tariff on Beijing on Wednesday − taking the total to 54% − as part of his program of "reciprocal tariffs" targeted at nations he says have been unfair to the U.

The Chinese military on Tuesday said it had begun conducting exercises that would approach the island of Taiwan “from multiple directions,” according to a statement posted on the Eastern Theater Command’s official social media account.