Taiwan was the top item on the agenda during President Donald Trump's summit with Chairman Xi Jinping.   While nothing was discussed of particular significance, all signs show that Trump has softened his support for the island China contend's is theirs .  I asked Google about Trump's current attitude on this subject: Donald Trump has not stated that he is willing to give up Taiwan. However, his highly transactional approach to foreign policy has sparked intense debate, as he has explicitly described pending U.S. weapons sales to Taiwan as a "negotiating chip" to leverage concessions from China . [ 1 , 2 ] Details of the situation include: Arms Sales as Leverage: Trump recently delayed approving a $14 billion U.S. arms sale package for Taiwan. In an interview following his summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing, Trump stated: "I'm holding that in abeyance and it depends on China... It's a very good negotiating chip for us, frankly....

About Taipei, we did not do a tour because we were on this ship six years ago, and I will today get into what we saw in 2019, plus bring you up to date on what is happening today. I thus start with some nostalgia, as  on 4December2019 I posted on our Diamond Princess stop in Taipei . To begin, I went back to a 20November2008 posting reporting on a project I had in 1988 working with the Taiwanese government. One final anecdote is that  PICHTR , exactly 20 years ago, worked with  ITRI  to produce an $80 million multiple product  OTEC  study for Taiwan, led by Paul Yuen and my engineering team (same group as mentioned above). In our small way, then, we like to think we stimulated some interest in what could someday be the most important renewable energy resource for Hawaii and World. Maybe The  Blue Revolution  (see Chapter 4 of  SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Planet Earth)  has  finally started. Plus, I made visits to their second largest city,...

I thought the Diamond Princess was in the general vicinity of New Zealand, but on checking found that we are nearly 6000 miles away.  Anyway, just read about an  extremely rare PINK grasshopper  found in New Zealand.  Not really pink, as you can see, but I found another photo that looks pinkish. With that aside, Day 6 means we're docked at Keelung Harbor, Taiwan. Up in the hills the Statue of Buddhist Goddess of Mercy Guanyin, there to protect mariners. This statue is located in Zhongzheng Park, which also has attractions like the Keelung Martyrs Shrine and the Zhupu Altar. With the attractions to see from our Horizon Court buffet dining room, lunch of soup, salad and a beef/mushroom pie, with a Heineken. For dinner, we walked by restaurants that should be crowded.  We asked why no passengers, and the staff does not know, although a couple blamed seasickness.  We went to the Brazilian Churrascaria Grill, which needs reservations, but took us because they we...