Senior defence officials from the United States and Taiwan met in secret last week in Anchorage, Alaska the UK’s Financial Times has reported, in a move that all but proves Washington’s delicate balancing act between support for Taipei and efforts to preserve fragile negotiations with Beijing.

The discussions brought together Jed Royal, the Pentagon’s acting Indo-Pacific chief, and Hsu Szu-chien, at the time Taiwan’s deputy national security adviser. Hsu has since been promoted to a more senior advisory post and is seen as a likely candidate to serve as Taipei’s next ambassador to Washington the report adds.

The meeting came only weeks after a higher-level gathering originally planned for Washington was cancelled and comes at a time Taiwan is seeing increased Chinese moves against the island nation with daily manoeuvres by the PLA air and naval forces in the skies and waters around Taiwan.

That session would have included Taiwan’s defence minister, Wellington Koo, and senior US defence policy official Elbridge Colby. The Trump administration halted the talks at the last minute, citing the fallout from strikes on Iran, though some within Washington feared that hosting a serving Taiwanese defence minister in the US capital could jeopardise a potential summit between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping.

Instead, the scaled-down encounter in Alaska was designed to lower the profile of US-Taiwan engagement at a time when both Washington and Beijing are pursuing a possible October summit in Beijing alongside continuing trade negotiations the FT says. That it took place at all will be seen in some quarters as a message to Beijing, however, that should trade talks not be seen as successful by the US, then moves could be made to bolster Taiwan’s defences further.

Demonstrating the sensitivity of the talks with both Taiwan and China, American officials have reportedly been instructed to avoid new punitive measures against China, such as tightening export controls, in order to keep the talks on track.

The episode also reflects a broader tension in US policy. On the one hand, there is a recognised strategic need to maintain regular senior-level contacts with Taipei, particularly as China showcases its growing military power. On the other, Trump has sought to keep channels with Xi open, often showing personal ambivalence towards Taiwan while prioritising trade outcomes and cultivating ties with authoritarian leaders.

Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te faces a more difficult landscape than his predecessor, Tsai Ing-wen, who enjoyed close relations with both Trump’s first administration and President Joe Biden’s team. Lai’s officials have been working to counter perceptions of waning American backing, while emphasising Taiwan’s readiness to shoulder more of its own defence burden. In doing so, Taipei has recently announced a record defence budget, proposing a 23% rise that would lift military spending to more than 3.3% of GDP next year. The plan, however, is more than likely to face resistance from opposition Kuomintang lawmakers who control the legislature.

For Taipei, the Alaska talks were also a matter of timing. Officials wanted discussions concluded swiftly enough to support a special budget submission for arms purchases, while Washington was finalising its own national defence strategy.

The Pentagon and Taiwan’s government have both declined to comment publicly on the Anchorage meeting the FT says. Yet the decision to downgrade the format of talks illustrates the extent to which Taiwan’s security is being weighed against Washington’s efforts to manage relations with Beijing – a factor few in Taiwan will be pleased with when news of the talks hits the mainstream media.