NIAMEY, Niger — The body of Sgt. La David Johnson, one of four U.S. soldiers killed in an ambush by Islamist militants in Niger last month, was found with his arms tied and a gaping wound at the back of his head, according to two villagers, suggesting that he may have been captured and then executed.

Adamou Boubacar, a 23-year-old farmer and trader, said some children tending cattle found the remains of the soldier Oct. 6, two days after the attack outside the remote Niger village of Tongo Tongo, which also left five Nigerien soldiers dead. The children notified him.

When Boubacar went to the location, a bushy area roughly a mile from the ambush site, he saw Johnson’s body lying face down, he said. The back of his head had been smashed by something, possibly a bullet, said Boubacar. The soldier’s wrists were bound with rope, he said, raising the possibility that the militants — whom the Pentagon suspects were affiliated with the Islamic State — seized Johnson during the firefight and held him captive.

The villagers’ accounts come as the Niger operation is under intense scrutiny in the United States, with lawmakers expressing concern that they have received insufficient or conflicting information about what happened. The Pentagon is conducting an investigation into the attack in Niger, where the U.S. military is helping the Nigerien government confront a threat by militants associated with the Islamic State and al-Qaeda.

Boubacar, a resident of Tongo Tongo, said in a phone interview that he informed the village’s chief after seeing Johnson’s body. “His two arms were tied behind his back,” he said. The chief called Nigerien military forces, who dispatched troops to retrieve Johnson’s remains.

[Hours before death in Niger, U.S. soldiers were targeting militants in Mali]

The village chief of Tongo Tongo, Mounkaila Alassane, confirmed the account in a separate phone interview.

“The back of his head was a mess, as if they had hit him with something hard, like a hammer,” recalled Alassane, who said he also saw the body. “They took his shoes. He was wearing only socks.”

A U.S. military official with knowledge of the investigation into the ambush acknowledged that Johnson’s body appeared viciously battered but cautioned against reaching any conclusions until the probe is completed.

“When the Americans received Johnson, his hands were not tied,” said the U.S. official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter.

The two Tongo Tongo villagers said they also saw the bodies of the three other American soldiers — Staff Sgts. Bryan Black, Jeremiah Johnson and Dustin Wright — who U.S. officials say were killed in action. One was slumped inside the team’s pickup truck, they said. The bodies of the other two were on the ground, one clutching a walkie-talkie, they said.

They were wearing T-shirts and boxer shorts, the two men said. It was unclear whether the militants had stripped off their uniforms.

The accounts could help explain why it to took two days to find Johnson’s body, while the other men’s remains were retrieved several hours after the battle. Johnson’s widow has said that the U.S. military advised her not to view his corpse, a suggestion often made when remains are badly disfigured.

The widow, Myeshia Johnson, has emerged as a prominent figure in the uproar over the Niger attack, accusing President Trump of acting cavalierly about her husband in a condolence call, a charge the White House has denied. She also has complained of receiving little information about what happened to her spouse.

[Deaths of four U.S. soldiers in Niger hint at the shadow war against ISIS in Africa]

FBI and U.S. military investigators have arrived in this impoverished West African nation to try to determine what happened in the Oct. 4 assault on an 11-member Army Special Forces team and 30 Nigerien troops. Among the questions they are addressing: Were there intelligence lapses? Did the unit have adequate equipment? Was the extremist threat properly assessed before the mission?

The case has received enormous attention in the United States because of conflicting accounts over whether the soldiers were on a low-risk patrol or had changed plans and set out in pursuit of Islamist insurgents. Questions also have been raised about why the team was lightly armed, given the danger in the area.

The Pentagon has said the soldiers were on a routine reconnaissance mission. Under U.S. military rules, American troops in Niger are not supposed to go on combat missions in the country, but they can “advise and assist” on missions with local forces where the chance of enemy contact is low.

A senior Nigerien security official said in an interview that the military unit made a critical error by deciding to spend the night along the volatile Mali-Niger border. That allowed the militants to surveil the unit and plan the ambush that occurred the following morning outside Tongo Tongo as the team was heading back to their base, he said.

In fact, the official said, the team was initially on a one-day mission.

“The schedule they did was to come back the first day, but they did not,” Mohamed Bazoum, Niger’s interior minister, said in the interview. “They stayed there. And because they stayed there for all the night, the jihadists were able to target them” and follow them.

In an Oct. 23 briefing with journalists, Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, acknowledged that the unit stayed away from its base overnight between Oct. 3 and 4. But he said, “I think a probably more accurate description than ‘stayed overnight’ was they caught a couple of hours of sleep after the 3rd and before they completed their mission on the 4th.”

He noted that previous joint patrols in the region had occurred without fatalities. There are roughly 800 U.S. troops in Niger, about a third of whom are Special Forces who take part in the “advise and assist” missions.

“Are they taking risks?” said Dunford. “They are. Are they taking risks that are unreasonable or not within their capabilities? I don’t have any reason to believe that.”

Col. Mark Cheadle, the top spokesman for the U.S. military’s Africa Command, said overnight stays by U.S. soldiers advising local forces in Niger were ­“mission-dependent.” He declined to respond to the interior minister’s charge or the villagers’ recollections of Johnson’s remains, deferring to senior U.S. military officials who have said answers would be provided after a thorough investigation.

Bazoum oversees Niger’s internal security and works closely with both the Nigerien military and U.S. and other Western forces in the country. Normally, he said, such joint reconnaissance missions along the Niger-Mali border do not stretch over two days. Some news accounts, citing U.S. officials, have reported at least 29 joint missions in the past six months along the border.

When asked how many of those missions lasted two days, Cheadle said in an email that he could not provide a breakdown for security reasons, “but what I can say is that U.S. forces are prepared for overnight stays should the mission require it.”

[Who were the four U.S. soldiers killed in Niger?]

The U.S. military official with knowledge of the ambush investigation said that it increasingly appears that the soldiers’ mission did change after they left their base in the capital, Niamey. The unit, the official said, apparently was rerouted to help another military team target a top Islamic State militant named Dadou, who was code-named “Naylor Road” by the U.S. military. But bad weather prevented the commandos from reaching the area. The unit continued to search for the militant and his fighters and eventually spent the night on the border, he said.

It was not clear why a team mostly armed with rifles was ordered to assist an operation to nab a dangerous extremist.

Niger’s defense minister and Sgt. Abdou Kané, a Nigerien soldier who survived the ambush, told The Washington Post last week that the mission was not purely to gather information but also to capture or kill enemy combatants inside Mali.

The U.S. official said the unit was never inside Mali but was operating along the border, essentially a line in the sand.

Bazoum, the interior minister, said the team’s miscalculations also included lingering too long in Tongo Tongo on the way back to base. The unit had stopped to replenish its water supplies on the morning of Oct. 4, and the U.S. soldiers spent time discussing medical care for the village kids, according to Kané and Alassane, the Tongo Tongo chief. The Nigerien soldiers cooked and ate breakfast.

“It was very easy for the jihadists to mobilize themselves and have a number of fighters more than the number that composed the mission,” Bazoum said.

“There was a big failure of intelligence by both the Nigeriens and the Americans,” he added. “The Americans are supposed to have more means, more information than us. But it is our country. Our intelligence service should know that this area was not so safe. They could have told them to hurry up, to not spend time staying in Tongo Tongo.”

Around 11:40 a.m. on Oct. 4, the team was ambushed outside the village by more than 50 militants with heavy weapons, according to Kané and Nigerien and U.S. officials. The soldiers began to run out of ammunition, said Bazoum.

Air support from French Puma helicopters and French jets took an hour or longer to arrive. When it did, the militants fled, said witnesses.

It was not clear exactly how Johnson’s body wound up in the field a mile away. Dunford has said Johnson became “separated” from his colleagues.

The day after Johnson’s remains were found, Alassane was arrested on charges of aiding the militants. He was released recently, said Bazoum, because of lack of evidence.

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HANOI, Vietnam — The Latest on President Donald Trump’s visit to Asia (all times local):

7:25 p.m.

North Korea’s Foreign Ministry on Saturday issued its first official statement on President Donald Trump’s trip to Asia, slamming Trump for trying to denuclearize the North.

The ministry said that Trump’s trip “is a warmonger’s trip for confrontation with our country, trying to remove our self-defensive nuclear deterrent.”

It accused Trump of trying to demonize North Korea, keep it apart from the international community and undermine its government.

The ministry said, “Reckless remarks by an old lunatic like Trump will never scare us or stop our advance. On the contrary, all this makes us more sure that our choice to promote economic construction at the same time as building up our nuclear force is all the more righteous, and it pushes us to speed up the effort to complete our nuclear force.”

North Korea is not known to have tested any of its missiles or nuclear devices since Sept. 15, a relative lull after a brisk series of tests earlier this year.

___

7:20 p.m.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is brushing off recent reports that the US commerce secretary had interest in a company that does business with a major Russian company with possible ties to Putin relatives.

Reports this week said Wilbur Ross is a shareholder in a shipping company that relies on the Russian company Sibur for much of its revenue. A man reported to be one of Putin’s sons-in-law is believed to be a major Sibur shareholder.

Putin said Saturday that “This is nothing more than business. It never had and does not have any relation with politics.”

Putin also rejected any Russian connection to the recently indicted former campaign manager of President Donald Trump, Paul Manafort.

Manafort is charged with offenses including failing to register as a foreign agent while advising the party of Viktor Yanukovych, the Russia-friendly Ukrainan president who was ousted amid massive street protests in 2014.

__

6:55 p.m.

Russian President Vladimir Putin says the lack of a formal meeting with President Donald Trump at a conference in Vietnam reflects continuing tense relations between their countries.

Putin and Trump had several brief exchanges Friday night and Saturday as world leaders gathered for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference. They did not have a formal, one-on-one meeting.

Russian news agencies quoted Putin as saying that the lack of a formal meeting shows that U.S.-Russia relations have “not yet emerged from the state of crisis.”

But he was also quoted as blaming the absence of a sit-down on scheduling conflicts and “certain matters of the protocol” that couldn’t be worked out.

___

5:50 p.m.

President Donald Trump says he didn’t see Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (shin-zoh AH’-bay) take a tumble on the golf course.

But he says, if it was Abe, “I’m very impressed because (Abe is) better than any gymnast I’ve ever seen.”

Trump made the remarks to reporters aboard Air Force One as it headed toward Hanoi, Vietnam, for meetings and a state banquet.

Japan’s TV Tokyo aired footage of a player identified as Abe trying repeatedly to hit his ball out of a steep bunker. As he finally made the shot, Trump began walking away, and Abe ran up the side of the bunker to catch up.

But just as the 63-year-old prime minister stepped onto the grass, he slipped, making a backward flip down into the sand. He quickly stood up and picked up his cap.

___

5:35 p.m.

President Donald Trump says Russia President Vladimir Putin once again denied meddling in the 2016 election during their conversations Saturday at a summit in Vietnam.

And Trump still won’t say definitively whether he believes Putin.

Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that every time Putin sees him he says: “I didn’t do that.”

Says Trump: “And I believe, I really believe that when he tells me that he means it.”

Multiple U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that Moscow meddled in the 2016 election to try to help Trump win. Multiple investigations are also under way to determine whether Trump campaign officials colluded with them.

Trump dismissed the heads of those agencies as “political hacks.” He says there’s plenty of reason to be suspicious of their findings.

___

5:30 p.m.

President Donald Trump is blaming Democrats for creating an “artificial barrier” to U.S.-Russian relations by accusing Russia of meddling in the 2016 election.

Trump tells reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Hanoi that the allegations, which he’s dismissed as a witch hunt in the past, are damaging his ability to work with Russia. And he says that’s putting lives at stake.

He says the “artificial barrier” gets in the way of putting global pressure on North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program.

Without that obstacle, Trump says, “we could really be helped a lot, tremendously with Russia having to do with North Korea.”

He goes on to say that, “If we can save many, many, many lives by making a deal with Russia having to do with Syria, and then ultimately getting Syria solved and getting Ukraine solved and doing other things, having a good relationship with Russia’s a great, great thing. And this artificial Democratic hit job gets in the way,” he says, adding that, “people will die because of it.”

___

5:25 p.m.

President Donald Trump has landed in Hanoi, Vietnam, as he heads toward the end of his first official visit to Asia.

Trump is attending a state banquet Saturday, before Sunday meetings with Vietnam’s president and prime minister. He next stops in the Philippines before heading back to the U.S.

Trump spent the first half of Saturday meeting with world leaders gathered in the seaside city of Danang for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.

Trump has been hammering leaders on trade and urging them to do more to pressure North Korea to abandon its nuclear program.

He was also seen chatting on several occasions with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

___

4:15 p.m.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Donald Trump say they welcome President Bashar Assad’s “recent statement of commitment” to the Geneva process for resolving the conflict in Syria.

Putin and Trump met on the sidelines of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation conference in Vietnam.

Assad’s commitment to the process, in line with a UN Security Council resolution, implies “constitutional reform and free and fair elections under the supervision of the United Nations” in which all Syrians can participate, including those in the diaspora, a Kremlin statement said.

Trump and Putin also reaffirmed support for de-escalation zones in Syria, including one in the southwest that was agreed to in the presidents’ previous meeting in July in Germany. They also called on UN members to increase humanitarian aid contributions for Syria.

___

3:50 p.m.

The Kremlin says Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Donald Trump have reaffirmed their countries’ intentions to defeat the Islamic State group in Syria.

The leaders reached an agreement during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference in Vietnam on Saturday.

A Kremlin statement says they agreed to support existing communications channels to ensure the security of the U.S. and Russian armed forces, as well as to prevent dangerous incidents involving the forces of partners fighting IS. The Kremlin says they confirmed that these efforts will continue until the final defeat of IS.

The Kremlin says they also agreed that the Syrian conflict “does not have a military solution,” and that final resolution must come in the framework of the so-called Geneva Process.

The White House so far has not commented.

___

3:40 p.m.

President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin may not be having a formal meeting while they’re in Vietnam for an economic summit, but they appear to be chumming it up nonetheless.

Snippets of video from the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference Saturday show the two leaders chatting and shaking hands at events, including the traditional world leaders’ group photo.

U.S. intelligence agencies concluded last year that Russia meddled in the 2016 presidential election in order to help Trump win. Putin has denied interfering in the election.

Later Saturday, Trump heads to the capital city of Hanoi to attend a state banquet.

Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – President Michel Aoun told Saudi Arabia’s envoy on Friday that Saad al-Hariri must return to Lebanon and the circumstances surrounding his resignation as prime minister while in Saudi Arabia were unacceptable, presidential sources said.

The Lebanese authorities believe Hariri is being held in Saudi Arabia, two top Lebanese government officials, a senior politician close to Hariri and a fourth source told Reuters on Thursday, amid a deepening crisis pushing Lebanon onto the frontlines of a power struggle between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Riyadh says Hariri, a long-time Saudi ally, is a free man and it had nothing to do with his decision to announce his resignation on Saturday while in Saudi Arabia.

Since Hariri’s announcement, Saudi Arabia has accused Lebanon and its Shi‘ite Hezbollah movement of declaring war on it. Riyadh has advised Saudi citizens not to travel to Lebanon, or if already there to leave as soon as possible. Other Gulf states have also issued travel warnings.

Those steps have raised concern that Riyadh could take measures against the tiny Arab state, which hosts 1.5 million Syrian refugees.

Lebanon, where Sunnis, Shi‘ites, Christians and Druze, all backed by rival regional powers, fought a civil war from 1975-1990, maintains a governing system designed to ensure each group is represented.

The shock resignation of Sunni political leader Hariri has thrust Lebanon back to the center of a regional struggle between the Sunni monarchy of Saudi Arabia and Shi‘ite Islamist Iran, whose powerful Lebanese Shi‘ite ally Hezbollah has major sway.

An “international support group” of countries concerned about Lebanon, which includes the United States, Russia and France, appealed for Lebanon “to continue to be shielded from tensions in the region”. In a statement, they also welcomed Aoun’s call for Hariri to return.

During the meeting with the Saudi envoy, Aoun expressed concern over reports about Hariri’s circumstances and urged clarification, presidential sources said.

Hariri, whose father, a long-serving prime minister, was killed by a bomb in 2005, said in his resignation that he feared assassination and blamed Iran for meddling in Lebanon’s affairs.

His resignation unraveled a political deal among rival factions that made him prime minister and Aoun, a political ally of Hezbollah, head of state last year. The coalition government included Hezbollah, a heavily armed military and political organization.

In the first direct Western comment on Hariri’s status, France and Germany both said on Friday they did not believe Hariri was being held against his will.

“Our concern is the stability of Lebanon and that a political solution can be put in place rapidly,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told Europe 1 radio.

“As far as we know, yes: we think (Hariri) is free of his movements and it’s important he makes his own choices,” he said.

JUMBLATT SEES NO ALTERNATIVE TO HARIRI

On Thursday, Hariri’s Future Movement political party said his return home was necessary to uphold the Lebanese system, describing him as prime minister and a national leader.

Aoun has refused to accept the resignation until Hariri returns to Lebanon to deliver it to him in person and explain his reasons.

Top Lebanese Druze politician Walid Jumblatt said on Friday it was time that Hariri returned to Lebanon. After a week of absence, “be it forced or voluntary”, it was “time for Sheikh Saad to return,” Jumblatt said on Twitter. “By the way, there is no alternative to him,” he added.

Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah is expected to address the crisis at 3 p.m. (1300 GMT) in a public address to mark a religious occasion.

Saudi Arabia considers Iranian-allied Hezbollah to be its enemy in conflicts across the Middle East, including Syria and Yemen.

The Saudi foreign minister accused Hezbollah of a role in the launching of a ballistic missile at Riyadh from Yemen on Saturday. Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said Iran’s supply of rockets to militias in Yemen was an act of “direct military aggression” that could be an act of war.

The resignation of Hariri, who as well as a politician is a business tycoon with major investments in Saudi Arabia, also comes as Riyadh has rounded up dozens of senior princes and businessmen in a corruption investigation.

Reporting by Dominiqu Vidalon and John Irish in Paris, Sarah Dadouch and Tom Perry in Beirut; Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by Peter Graff

Senators Mike Lee, Republican of Utah, and Marco Rubio, Republican of Florida, said the bill did not go far enough in increasing the child tax credit, which rose to $1,650 per child in the Senate version, from $1,600 in the House bill, and would now be available to families making up to $1 million a year, a leap from a current income limit of $110,000. “The Senate is not going to pass a bill that isn’t clearly pro-family,” they said in a joint statement, “so we look forward to working with our colleagues to get there.”

Stocks tumbled on the news that the corporate rate cut may be delayed. The Standard Poor’s 500-stock index fell 0.4 percent and the Nasdaq 100 slipped 0.5 percent.

“The Street definitely felt like there was some connection between tax policy and the market reaction, which was pretty severe,” said Les Funtleyder, a portfolio manager at E Squared Capital Management in New York.

FreedomWorks, a conservative advocacy group, called the Senate’s plan to delay the corporate tax cut “unacceptable.”

Still, several business groups and Republican leaders applauded the movement in both chambers. The influential National Federation of Independent Business, which represents small businesses and had opposed the House bill, reversed course and said it backed both an amended House bill and the Senate version. Other groups shook off the delayed rate cut and embraced the Senate plan.

“It’s been a week of remarkable progress,” said Michael A. Steel, a former House leadership aide who is a managing director for Hamilton Place Strategies, a consultancy in Washington.

Republican leaders expressed optimism that they could quickly address concerns and resolve the competing political pressures facing their lawmakers in the Senate and House.

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“This will be met with Senate consternation and all kinds of things,” said Representative Peter Roskam of Illinois, who oversees the Ways and Means tax policy subcommittee. “But when it comes down to it, what we’re on the verge today is winning an argument — winning an argument about the future of our economy and what our worldview is.”

The bill set for introduction in the Senate Finance Committee includes seven income brackets, scuttling some of the simplicity that House drafters used to sell their bill, which reduced the number of brackets to four.

It would keep the bottom tax bracket for individuals at 10 percent, which the House had raised to 12 percent, and would reduce the top rate for high earners to 38.5 percent, down from the current rate of 39.6 percent, which the House had maintained. Like the House bill, the Senate’s version plans to roughly double the standard deduction and expand the child tax credit.

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The starkest example of the competing priorities is the state and local tax deduction, which is heavily used in high-tax states like New York, New Jersey and California, which are represented by Democrats in the Senate but have some Republican representatives in the House. The Senate completely eliminates the valuable tax break, which allows taxpayers to deduct state and local income, sales and property taxes. The House bill would still allow individuals to deduct property taxes up to $10,000.

Some House Republicans have already rejected that limitation as too strict and the Senate’s complete elimination could further spook those members, whose political future could be imperiled if they pass a plan that actually increases their constituents’ tax bills.

“Every state should be a winner in tax reform, and in my opinion, that would not be the case if the Senate view were to prevail,” said Representative Leonard Lance, Republican of New Jersey. “I’m not voting for the $10,000, so I’m certainly not voting for zero,” Mr. Lance said.

The bill would add $1.5 trillion to federal budget deficits over a decade, without accounting for additional economic growth it might spur, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation. But Senate staff members suggested that the Finance Committee would need to make changes to ensure it does not lose revenue after 10 years, and thus stays in compliance with the procedural rules that would allow the bill to pass on a party-line vote.

In another significant departure from the House bill, the Senate would not create a special, lower top rate for so-called pass-through entities, which are businesses whose profits are distributed to their owners and taxed as individual income. Instead, the Senate would create a 17.4 percent deduction on income taxes for pass-through owners of all income levels, effectively cutting rates both on rich owners and on middle-class small-business owners who would not have benefited from the House’s original lower pass-through rate. For service-providing pass-throughs, it would phase out that benefit for individuals with income above $75,000 and for married couples with income above $150,000.

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On Thursday, in the face of pushback from fellow Republican lawmakers, small businesses and other industry groups, Representative Kevin Brady of Texas, who leads the Ways and Means Committee, unveiled a 29-page amendment making further revisions to the House’s tax plan. The amendment restores the adoption tax credit, which the House tax plan had planned to repeal. It also creates a new, lower tax rate for certain business owners.

Under the new provision, the first $37,500 of business income would be taxed at 9 percent, rather than 12 percent, for an unmarried individual earning less than $75,000 through a pass-through business. For a married couple, the dollar amounts would be double.

The Senate is also including a provision to prevent large multinational corporations from stashing profits overseas. The bill will propose a new business tax on American and foreign companies — effectively a minimum tax on their income earned in the United States — while also levying a 12.5 percent tax on income that American companies receive overseas from their intellectual property.

Preliminary estimates indicate the provision would raise more than $130 billion in tax revenue over 10 years to help offset revenue lost from rate cuts, committee staff members said. The original House approach, which would have levied a 20 percent “excise tax” on payments between American and foreign companies that are affiliated with each other, would have raised an estimated $155 billion in revenue.

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Danang’s prettiest stretch of sand, known then as China Beach, gave American troops a sun and surf respite from the war, even as the Communist forces closed in.

Today Danang’s beaches once again lure visitors, and a building frenzy of resorts has brought five-star luxury to one of the world’s five remaining Communist nations. Danang’s city planners fought hard to win rights to host the APEC forum, which will see the leaders of 21 economies in attendance, including President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and President Xi Jinping of China.

Signs of the warming relationship between the United States and Vietnam are in evidence down the coast from Danang, where an American aircraft carrier is scheduled to make a port call next year, most likely at Cam Ranh Bay, the naval base once used by the Americans.

“When we fight, we must use everything we have, the ancient jungle and the deep ocean, the rivers and the mountains and our bones and flesh,” said Dao Kim Long, a veteran of the American War who also fought the French as a 14-year-old guerrilla. “But when we shake hands, we can begin a friendship with all our heart.”

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Vietnam’s tilt toward the United States owes much to the looming shadow of a far more enduring and challenging antagonist: China. Like many countries in the region, Vietnam is keen for an American counterweight to balance against the growing heft of China.

In May, the Vietnamese were given a United States Coast Guard cutter and six new patrol boats to defend the swath of the South China Sea that Hanoi considers its own. Beijing, which has more aggressively asserted that nearly the entire waterway is its own, has clashed repeatedly with Vietnam over competing claims.

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In May, Nguyen Xuan Phuc, the prime minister of Vietnam, became the first leader from Southeast Asia to meet with Mr. Trump in Washington. And Mr. Trump will continue an unbroken string of visits to Vietnam by American presidents since diplomatic ties were normalized in 1995.

There are still notable policy differences. The United States ranks as the top destination for Vietnamese exports, and Hanoi was particularly disappointed when Mr. Trump pulled out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact, which would have given Vietnam better access to its No. 1 market.

Trade is expected to be a major topic during the meetings Mr. Trump will hold with Tran Dai Quang, his Vietnamese counterpart, on Saturday in Hanoi.

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“Vietnamese officials are waiting to see if, during Trump’s bilateral meetings, he stays focused on America First or if he raises more substantive suggestions about how the two countries can engage economically,” said Murray Hiebert, a senior associate of the Southeast Asia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

During his May meeting with Mr. Phuc, Mr. Trump refrained from censuring Vietnam for its mounting crackdown on dissent, which has resulted in the arrests of dozens of bloggers, religious leaders and activists.

In a Nov. 7 letter, 20 members of the House of Representatives, from both parties, called for Mr. Trump to raise “Vietnam’s dismal human rights record” when he sees Mr. Quang on Saturday.

Five decades ago, Mr. Trump was exempted from military service during the Vietnam War with a bone spur diagnosis. On Friday, in between events at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, Mr. Trump met with American veterans of the Vietnam war and signed a proclamation commemorating the conflict’s 50th anniversary.

“Each of you, under the most difficult conditions, did what you had to do, and you did it well,” Mr. Trump told the veterans. “They’re brave, they’re strong, they’re great patriots, and we just want to thank you and all of the thousands and thousands, and all of the people that served with you and in all of the other wars.”

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He said his administration was working to secure the return of 1,253 veterans still missing in Vietnam and that it “will not rest” until they are brought home.

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The president’s first contact with Vietnam was on land contaminated by the United States military half a century ago.

Danang’s airport is on the site of an old American air base where barrels of the defoliant Agent Orange were once stored and mixed. Dioxin, a toxic contaminant, seeped into the ground and nearby water sources.

Since then, families living in the area have experienced higher rates of children with birth defects, most of which render them severely disabled. Nationwide, the Vietnamese Red Cross estimates that three million Vietnamese have been damaged by dioxin poisoning, either from their parents’ exposure or from the polluted environments themselves.

After decades of rejecting any link between dioxin and a multitude of cancers, birth defects and other physical ailments, the United States government in 2007 started to address the health and environmental consequences of the toxic compound in Vietnam.

Five years later, the Americans began paying for the decontamination of the area around the Danang airport, where dioxin readings 365 times the safe level were found. By the middle of next year, the area should be entirely free of dioxin residue. (Efforts to fund further dioxin cleanups have caused budgetary wrangling between the State Department and the Pentagon.)

“Only a few years ago a large portion of the Danang airport was a toxic waste site that posed grave risks to human health,” said Senator Patrick Leahy, the Vermont Democrat who has led the congressional effort to redress one of the world’s most persistent chemical assaults on the environment.

“Today it is a fully functioning airport for a city of 1.3 million people,” said Mr. Leahy, who visited Danang in 2014. “The fact that this very location is the site of the APEC summit, attended by the president of the United States, speaks volumes.”

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Donald Trump at an Oct. 2016 campaign rally in Johnstown, Pa. He won by cracking Democrats’ “blue wall,” as the first GOP presidential candidate to win Pennsylvania since 1988.

Evan Vucci/AP

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Donald Trump at an Oct. 2016 campaign rally in Johnstown, Pa. He won by cracking Democrats’ “blue wall,” as the first GOP presidential candidate to win Pennsylvania since 1988.

Evan Vucci/AP

Republicans had watched Donald Trump unleash powerful forces inside their party for more than a year. On Election Day last year, the question for many inside the GOP was how to deal with those forces once Trump had lost.

Few had figured out what it would mean for the party if he won.

Democrats were planning. There were lists of cabinet secretaries and the challenge of breaking the deadlock that set in between President Obama and the GOP Congress once President Hillary Clinton was in office.

Few had figured out what it would mean for the party if she lost.

Over the past year, Republicans have struggled to come together and govern effectively. Democrats have struggled to unite around a common cause, or move on from bitter infighting. But both parties may finally be figuring out how to exist in the Trump era.

Republicans

‘No if, ands or buts,’ it’s Trump’s party

New York Rep. Chris Collins made the smartest bet of his political career when he became the first House Republican to endorse Trump during the 2016 campaign.

“My constituents love Donald Trump,” the Republican said in a recent interview, noting that his loyalty is not lost back home in his suburban Buffalo, N.Y., district. “The number of people that come up to me all the time — and I’m most surprised by how many have young kids — and say, ‘My 8-year-old son, my 12-year-old daughter, they love Donald Trump!”

Collins’ enthusiasm and support for Trump is in striking contrast to the national political climate, where President Trump’s approval rating hovers around 38 percent.

The 2016 presidential election divided the nation, and at the one-year mark of that election, those divisions endure. But inside the Republican Party, in the halls of Congress, and among the party’s base activists, Trump’s command over the GOP is nearly cemented.

“Here on Capitol Hill, people respect him immensely,” Collins said, “and he is setting the tone. Some politicians think of themselves as setting the tone, but they’re not setting the tone anymore, so [Trump] has got them on the edge of their chair. But they all want to go on Air Force One. They all want to go to the Oval Office…. Who’s in charge? There’s no if, ands or buts about who’s in charge — it’s Donald J. Trump.”

Enacting the most significant overhaul of the federal tax code since the Reagan era could eliminate any lingering doubt that the GOP will stand unified behind him.

Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., arrives for a Republican luncheon with President Donald Trump on Oct. 24. Hours later he went to the Senate floor to announce his retirement and denounce “flagrant disregard of truth and decency” in American politics.

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Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., arrives for a Republican luncheon with President Donald Trump on Oct. 24. Hours later he went to the Senate floor to announce his retirement and denounce “flagrant disregard of truth and decency” in American politics.

J. Scott Applewhite/AP

Trump is not without high-profile GOP detractors, like Sens. Jeff Flake of Arizona and Bob Corker of Tennessee, who have laid plain their concerns about Trump’s character and tilt toward more nationalist, protectionist politics.

That shift has been the most notable realignment under Trump, and the toughest one for many traditional conservatives to embrace, said Hans Noel, who studies political parties at Georgetown University.

“What seems to be changing on the Republican side is that the anti-immigrant, ethno-nationalist identity element is much, much more central than it had been,” Noel said. “If anything, it had been slowly fading over the last several decades as an important part of what it means to be conservative, and it is reasserting itself in both the ideology and in the party that is most aligned with that ideology.”

Flake and Corker have offered blistering critiques of the president, but their voices are fading in the party because both have opted for retirement over reelection campaigns in 2018.

Former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., said Republicans need to continue to work on expanding the party tent. Like many Republicans, Cantor believes Trump’s victory was due in large part to Clinton’s unpopularity and her flawed campaign.

In other words, Republicans can’t take for granted that the Trump coalition is enough to deliver future victories.

“Our system is a binary one — it’s one or the other, and when the choice on the other side is so bad, the base-only play that Donald Trump’s been about is going to succeed,” said Cantor, who himself lost a historic 2014 GOP primary in a loss that many attribute to a sign of the future rise of Trump.

Unlike Flake, Cantor still sees a home for himself inside the GOP, but he warns that Republicans could still lose core portions of their coalition, like suburban, college-educated voters, if Democrats can put up candidates with cross-party appeal.

“They’re the ones, if given a viable choice on the other side, they’re going to opt for that viable choice if the Republican Party doesn’t adopt more of an inclusive, expansive mantle,” he said.

Full control of D.C., with little to show for it

Republicans are candid that this first year has been an uneasy one between the two ends of Pennsylvania Avenue.

For most of this year, “the president and Republicans in Congress were just kind of circling each other like wary boxers trying to figure out what the other one is going to be like and how to get the drop on them,” said Steven Law, who runs the GOP superPAC American Crossroads and is a long-time ally of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

President Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., at an Oct. 16 impromptu press conference where Trump said their relationship is “outstanding.”

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President Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., at an Oct. 16 impromptu press conference where Trump said their relationship is “outstanding.”

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Law said the health care bill’s failure, while demoralizing, was also a lesson in how to work together. Like practically all Republicans, Law said the more important test of this governing majority will be if the the party can enact its major tax overhaul.

“If they fail at tax reform, after their failure on health care, then I think their majorities are in peril next year, because a lot of voters who gave them a chance, gave them these majorities, gave them the presidency, will feel like they didn’t make any use of it,” said Tim Phillips, who runs the Charles and David Koch-backed Americans for Prosperity, a conservative advocacy group whose single biggest legislative priority is to pass this tax bill.

Failure on tax legislation could derail the relationship between Trump and the Republican establishment, and the White House has already made clear they are willing to take aim at Republicans almost as easily as Democrats.

Ohio GOP Rep. Jim Jordan, a co-chair of the House Freedom Caucus, said this is where Trump has the upper hand over the establishment. Their voters are more loyal to the president, and lawmakers don’t like being on the wrong side of their voters.

“Those who say they’re for the president, when they say they’re for the president, they are really for the president, which is a good thing,” Jordan said. “I think the intensity factor for President Trump is probably as strong as anyone than in modern political times.”

Part of what’s fueling that intensity is the mainly white, working-class voters in places like Jordan’s congressional district, where many felt forgotten by the political system. In a shake up that took even the Republican establishment by surprise, Trump has challenged the image of the Republican Party as the party of corporate America, into a party that fights for working America.

“I think they see him as what they want the Republican Party to be,” said Rep. Robert Aderholt, R-Ala., whose district delivered Trump his highest vote share of the nation’s 435 congressional districts. “I think for far too long the establishment has had its way, and I think the establishment side of it is losing.”

Long-time Republican operatives like Law, said that could fundamentally be a very good thing for the GOP, to realign itself from the party of corporate America to the party of struggling, working-class America. “Donald Trump was not the president the Republican Party expected in 2016, but he may just end up being the president the Republican Party needs,” Law said.

— Susan Davis

Democrats

Hillary Clinton at a rally on Independence Mall in Philadelphia the night before the 2016 election, with former President Bill Clinton, Chelsea Clinton, President Barack Obama and then-First Lady Michelle Obama. A surge in rural votes delivered Pennsylvania to Donald Trump.

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Hillary Clinton at a rally on Independence Mall in Philadelphia the night before the 2016 election, with former President Bill Clinton, Chelsea Clinton, President Barack Obama and then-First Lady Michelle Obama. A surge in rural votes delivered Pennsylvania to Donald Trump.

Andrew Harnik/AP

Simply show up

Democrats have mostly been bystanders in Washington this year. Their challenge has been figuring out what went wrong out across the country. But initially, at least, that involved a lot of dwelling.

Over the past year, Democrats all over America have rehashed the minute-by-minute tick-tock of where they were, and what they were thinking, at the exact moment when it became clear that Donald Trump was on his way to the White House.

Chrissy Houlahan is no different. Sitting in Reading, Pa., one year later, she recalled how she and her daughter spent the morning of Election Day doing some last-minute door knocking for Hillary Clinton in suburban Philadelphia.

“We went back home and scrambled into outfits to vote in,” she said. “I put on a pantsuit and my daughter put on white clothes to represent the suffragettes. And we were so excited at the possibility that we may have just ushered in a first woman president.”

They watched the returns, champagne at the ready. “And the night, as we know, kind of went sideways, at least for me, when Pennsylvania fell and turned red,” Houlahan said.

The night before the election, Clinton had rallied with 33,000 people in front of Independence Hall in Philadelphia. But then she became the first Democrat to lose the commonwealth since 1988.

That upset in Pennsylvania — as well as similar surprises in Wisconsin and Michigan — put Trump in the White House. And while Trump’s combined margin in all three states was small enough to have fit in any of the Big Ten football stadiums in those states, the loss knocked Democrats off-kilter, and led to a year in which, electorally speaking, they didn’t trust themselves to be too confident in pretty much anything.

This week’s Democratic wins in Virginia and New Jersey provided Democrats with their first political boost since then. The party’s strong showing in statehouse races, in particular, validated a theory that Houlahan and other Democrats across Pennsylvania have been circling around as their main theory for how the Keystone State could possibly have slipped from their grasp: that Democrats have to put in the time and effort to simply show up outside of the cities and suburbs.

“In my view, it is completely insufficient to do what some Democratic strategists want us to do and just focus on getting 90 percent of the vote in a very small area and then ignoring the rest of the population,” said Rep. Brendan Boyle, a Democrat who represents part of Philadelphia and some suburban areas. “That math may work for a statewide race, but is death for all the single-member districts out there.”

And it didn’t work in 2016. Clinton got the vote totals Democrats typically need to win in Philadelphia and the surrounding suburbs. But a surge in Republican support in the rest of the state allowed Trump to claim a narrow victory.

In the wake of the election, Boyle helped found a Democratic “Blue Collar Caucus” aimed at helping reconnect the party with the working-class voters that, for so many decades, formed the core of its base.

“It’s not exactly telling a secret to say that the Democratic Party has drifted away from working men and women being the backbone of the party,” he said.

Democrats at all levels of party leadership think an economic focus is one way to reconnect with working-class and rural voters who felt championed by Trump in 2016. House and Senate leaders have rolled out an economic agenda they’re calling “A Better Deal.”

Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey, one of several Democrats running for reelection next year in suddenly red states, argues an economic focus is also a strategic way to avoid some of the infighting that characterized Democratic politics in 2017.

“I think, even as we’re a diverse party, we do tend to come together, I think, on jobs, raising wages, economic opportunity,” Casey said. “If I have a criticism of my party, and frankly, myself, we haven’t talked enough about those issues.”

But Boyle worries that simply pivoting the talking points isn’t enough.

“In some ways, the closeness of the presidential election actually papers over the extent of our challenge,” he said. “We are, numerically speaking, at our lowest point either in 90 years or ever as a party since being founded by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. So, in my view, it would be malpractice to think that all we need is a tweak, or just presenting the message in a slightly different way.”

Hope in the suburbs

Democrats regained a governor’s mansion this week, and seized control of one — possibly two, depending on Virginia recounts — state-level legislative chambers. But they’ll have to wait another year for an opportunity to make a substantial change in the number of seats they hold.

In the immediate aftermath of Trump’s election, many Democrats seemed paralyzed with dread. But, in interviews over the past year in Pennsylvania and across the country, rank-and-file Democrats repeatedly pointed to Jan. 21 as a galvanizing moment that shook them out of their stupor. That’s the date of the record-setting Women’s March in Washington and other cities around the nation and world.

Participants gather near the National Mall in Washington, D.C., for the Women’s March the day after President Trump’s inauguration.

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Participants gather near the National Mall in Washington, D.C., for the Women’s March the day after President Trump’s inauguration.

Sait Serkan Gurbuz/AP

Houlahan helped organize a bus to carry her and other Philadelphia-area protesters down I-95.

“And in that journey down with 53 women and two men, I had the opportunity to learn that we all had different reasons to be standing there and marching, and all of them were issues that really mattered to all of us,” she said. “And it occurred to me that I had the background and the experience” to possibly run for office.

She’s now running for Congress in Pennsylvania’s 6^th Congressional District.

In fact, Houlahan is one of the Democrats’ top prospects in Pennsylvania. She’s an Air Force veteran and a longtime business executive — and she’s running in a district that went for Clinton, but also reelected Republican Ryan Costello to Congress.

Democrats see their best shot at a House majority as winning districts like hers — suburban seats that split their results for Clinton and Republican representatives.

For Houlahan, there’s one big problem with that district — its shape. Many people see it as resembling a dragon.

“It basically snakes its way and arches its way across southeastern Pennsylvania, and westward toward Reading,” she said. “And that dragon, basically, has a bunch of bites in it. And anywhere that you see a bite taken out of the back or the stomach of the dragon, I would argue that those are where Democrats are.”

And Democrats only have one real fix for this problem — winning these districts, in spite of their built-in Republican advantages and taking back legislatures and governors’ seats, so they can be the party drawing them after the next census.

That’s easier said than done, because, as Boyle points out, Democrats dug themselves a deep hole over the past decade or so.

The party is, however, seeing a flood of first-time candidates. Many, like Houlahan, are women with military experience. At the same time, many Republicans in competitive districts have announced their retirements. All this is happening at a time when President Trump is suffering record-low approval ratings.

All of these signs are hallmarks of coming wave elections. Casey was first elected in 2006, and he sees similarities between that year’s climate and next year’s midterms.

“I think that the frustration with Washington is even more pronounced than it was,” he said — a striking observation, given that Democrats seized control of the House and Senate that year at the height of the Iraq War, and in the midst of a wave of Republican corruption scandals.

But there are far fewer competitive districts in play today than in 2006, as those district boundaries are a major challenge for Democrats, especially in states like Pennsylvania, where Republicans controlled the House, Senate and governor’s office at the time the lines were drawn in 2011.

That’s why grassroots activists like Jamie Perrapato are trying to erase them. She’s the director of a group called Turn PA Blue, which has organized canvassing events, candidate forums, and educational workshops all aimed at flipping Republican-held state and local offices in the Philadelphia suburbs.

“We’re trying to mobilize the people within the gerrymandered blue areas and move them out and put support in these red areas,” she explained, sitting in the back row of an empty high school auditorium just outside Philadelphia. “Generally, in these areas the Democrats have a registration advantage, but don’t always show up.”

Like Houlahan’s congressional candidacy and so many other progressive organizing efforts, Turn PA Blue was an initiative that began in January.

“All these little groups popped up after the election,” Perrapato said. “I don’t know if they were mini-support groups or lots of things that people wanted to do.”

She’s ended up working with many of them — state, county, and municipal Democratic parties that have been around for a long time, and newer, Trump-era grassroots efforts like Indivisible.

“I’m a good, Italian girl,” she said. “I never show up unannounced, and I don’t show up without food.”

All the organizing paid off this week. Democrats won county-level races in Delaware County, southwest of Philadelphia, for the first time ever.

Still, Trump remains in the White House, and Republicans control all aspects of the federal government. And even after a night of big local wins, Democrats are wary of feeling too confident — after 2016 turned out so horribly wrong for them.

“I’m wondering who we’re talking to,” Perrapato said about all her organizing efforts. “Are we talking to each other? Who’s listening?”

This week’s elections provided the first clue that Democrats may be reaching voters outside their bubble. But they won’t know for sure until 2018 and 2020.

— Scott Detrow

Blue Dog Democrats are lining up in firm opposition to the Republicans’ tax code overhaul, hoping that Tuesday’s election results will force GOP leaders to reach across the aisle for a bipartisan alternative.

The Blue Dogs had initially expressed an eagerness to join Republicans in the push for sweeping tax reform, which stands among the GOP’s top priorities. But the fiscally minded Democrats are quickly racing away from the GOP proposal, largely over projections the bill will hike taxes on millions of middle-class families and lead to a spike in deficit spending.

“Let me just be quite honest,” said Rep. David Scott, a Georgia Blue Dog. “There is no way I can support it.” 

Behind Rep. Kevin BradyKevin Patrick BradyOvernight Health Care: Trump officials to allow work requirements for Medicaid Overnight Finance: GOP criticism of tax bill grows, but few no votes | Highlights from day two of markup | House votes to overturn joint-employer rule | Senate panel approves North Korean banking sanctions Brady: Adoption credit may be added back into tax bill MORE (R-Texas), chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, the Republicans are pressing forward this week with the marathon markup of their partisan tax proposal. The Republicans, desperate for a major legislative victory following the embarrassing demise of ObamaCare repeal earlier in the year, are scrambling to move the tax bill through the House by Thanksgiving and to President Trump’s desk by Christmas.

But overhauling the nation’s convoluted tax structure is a colossal task — there are reasons Congress hasn’t enacted major tax reforms since the Reagan administration — and the Republicans are facing stiff headwinds from a long list of opponents, including small business groups, realtors, universities and deficit hawks, not to mention Democrats united against the plan.

The blowback has made even some Republicans skeptical they can enact the conservative tax overhaul that’s long been at the top of Speaker Paul RyanPaul RyanGOP rep: Virginia defeat ‘a referendum’ on Trump administration After Texas shooting, lawmakers question whether military has systemic reporting problem Pence: Praying ‘takes nothing away’ from trying to figure out causes behind mass shooting MORE’s (R-Wis.) wish list.

With that in mind, the Blue Dogs sense an opening for bipartisan compromise, and they’re feeling empowered by Tuesday’s elections, which saw lopsided Democratic victories in state and local contests across the country.

“It shows that we’ve got juice, and if they want to maintain their majority — or at least come close to that in the next cycle — they’re going to have to work with Democrats like us,” said Rep. Kurt Schrader, an Oregon Blue Dog.

“The mood of the country’s moving away from them. They’ve not shown that they can get anything done. People are tired of that; they want someone who’s going to work across the aisle, someone who can solve problems.”

Scott agreed, saying the elections should stand as “a wake-up call” for both parties.

“It’s a powerful lesson, and it puts a greater pep in the step of Democrats,” he added. “But we’ve got to be willing to reach across the aisle.”

The Blue Dogs have dwindled in numbers since a rout in 2010, and there are now fewer than 20 members.

And it’s not even clear that Republicans are ready to reach across the aisle simply based on Tuesday’s results. Just a handful of GOP members have come out against the tax bill thus far, and many Republicans expect an easy vote on the House floor next week.

And not all Democrats are so eager to work with the Republicans on the tax plan, which was written with no help from the minority party.

Indeed, in the eyes of many Democrats, Tuesday’s election trouncing was largely a reflection of the Republicans’ failure to enact any of their big campaign promises, despite controlling all the levers of power in Washington.

With that in mind, many Democrats see political gold in uniting to deny the Republicans a victory on tax reform, whatever form it assumes.

“The Democratic Party is going to be united,” Rep. Steny HoyerSteny Hamilton HoyerLawmakers question military’s lapse after Texas shooting Texas shooting brings familiar response on Capitol Hill Impeachment calls grow louder MORE (Md.), the Democratic whip, told reporters Tuesday. “If we held the vote today, we would be united. And I expect overwhelming Democratic opposition to a bill that advantages greatly the wealthiest in America and leaves the middle class behind.”

It remains unclear if the Republicans will need any Democratic votes to pass a tax package, with only several members peeling off thus far.

And although they’ve sprinkled notions of seeking bipartisanship, Republicans wrote the bill themselves and Democrats say they are jamming it through with no hearings.

And if the criticism coming from the Blue Dogs this week is any indication, the GOP bill needs plenty of work if it’s to win the Democrats’ support.

“It will increase the taxes on the middle class and give extraordinary tax cuts to the wealthiest people,” said Scott. “And you and I both know that it is the middle class, it is the lower-income [people] … that will spend the money.

“Giving these tax cuts to the wealthy, they hoard it.”

Echoing Scott, Rep. Sanford Bishop, another Georgia Blue Dog, ticked off a long list of deductions eliminated under the GOP plan he said Democrats can’t support. As one example, “it seems awfully ridiculous for a school teacher not to be able to deduct the pens and the pencils and the papers that she purchases for her children,” he said, “but a corporation can deduct all of the pens and supplies that they provide to their employees.”

The Blue Dogs also oppose new deficit spending proposed under the GOP’s plan — a figure that would reach $1.7 trillion over the next decade, the Congressional Budget Office estimated Wednesday.

“It’s complete hypocrisy that Republicans are ignoring that at this point,” Schrader said. “You’d have to close that hole dramatically.”

But Schrader also praised certain elements of the Republican plan, and predicted the GOP was going to need their help.

“They’re going to be desperate,” he added.

TAIPEI, Taiwan — President Trump’s visit to Beijing is being watched closely around the world — but few countries have more reason to scrutinize it than Taiwan.

The American leader is staying in China for two nights as one part of lengthy tour of Asia. Though Taiwan was not expected be a major focus of talks with China’s president, some worried that the issue may come up during discussions of North Korea’s weapons program or trade.

“There were rumors that when China and the U.S. talk about the North Korea issue they would use Taiwan as a bargaining chip,” mainland affairs minister Katherine Chang told a visiting group of U.S. journalists on Monday, adding that the Taiwanese government was “cautiously optimistic” this would not happen.

The fear is some kind of trade involving U.S. support for Taiwan and Chinese ties with North Korea could be under discussion.

Trump and Xi did not mention Taiwan in their public statement after meeting on Thursday. The pair also did not take questions from reporters. When a Taiwanese reporter attempted to ask Sec. of State Rex Tillerson about the issue after a press briefing, he did not respond.

[How China will play Trump]

China’s Foreign Ministry later, however, released a statement that said Xi had reiterated the importance of Taiwan to Beijing during his meeting with Trump. “The Taiwan issue is the most important and sensitive core issue in the Sino-U. S. relations and it is also the political foundation for the Sino-U. S. Relations,” he said, according to the statement.

Xi also asked the United States to continue to abide by the one-China policy, which rules out diplomatic recognition for Taiwan.

The statement will cause concern in Taiwan, where many had hoped that the issue would not come up. “It’d be better if Taiwan was not mentioned at all,” said Szu-chien Hsu, the chairman of the government-funded Taiwan Foundation for Democracy, ahead of Trump’s arrival in Beijing.

Taipei has long worried about Beijing raising the one-China issue during its meetings with the United States, according to Bonnie Glaser, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Under the Trump administration there were more concerns due to the “unpredictable president who in the past has said some extreme things about Taiwan,” she said.

Shortly after Trump’s election last year, there had been hopes for stronger U.S.-Taiwan ties. On the campaign trail Trump had frequently been critical of China and a number of close advisers held sympathetic views of Taiwan’s concerns. In early December, the then-president elect received an unprecedented congratulatory phone-call from Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen.

The call seemed to signal a change. The United States does not diplomatically recognize Taiwan though it enjoys a strong informal relationship with the country and is bound to protect it by law.

At first Trump defended his call and suggested that his administration’s position on the one-China policy would depend on whether he could “make a deal” with China on trade and other issues. Later, though, The U.S. president said he would not speak to the Taiwanese president again without checking with China first.

Now in Taiwan, many are worried about Trump’s plans. Analysts are paying close attention to his interactions with veteran foreign policy expert Henry Kissinger, with some suggesting that Kissinger is advocating that Trump make a major agreement on U.S.-China relations with Beijing.

Hsu, of the Taiwan Foundation, said that this was “just a rumor,” but added that there were real concerns that what lies behind Trump’s decision-making. “He is known for his transactional style of policymaking.”

The Trump administration has repeatedly stated that it views Chinese economic and diplomatic pressure as vital for convincing North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program. During a news conference in South Korea on Tuesday, the president had suggested that Xi had been “very helpful” on the North Korea issue and that China was “trying very hard to solve the problem.”

Other factors add further uncertainty to the relationship. Trump has made clear repeatedly that trade imbalances are key points of tension with foreign allies: The United States has logged an average trade deficit of $5.4 billion with Taiwan over the past five years.

One way to address that would be for Taiwan to boost its defense spending, which is considered low by U.S. officials. It currently stands at around 2 percent of gross domestic product and lags far behind that of China, its primary geopolitical rival. “Taiwan must do better,” Jim Moriarty, chairman of the American Institute of Taiwan, said of the country’s defense spending during an event last month at Brookings.

Still, longserving diplomats have stressed that any significant change in U.S. policy on Taiwan is unlikely, noting an arms sale of $1.42 billion agreed upon this summer. At the same time, Taipei is pursuing a number of policies that seem designed to curry favor with the Trump administration, including modest defense spending increases, a proposed bilateral trade agreement and a ban on all trade with North Korea.

Foreign Minister David Lee told reporters this week that Taiwan had also been attempting to use its close relationship to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to influence Trump’s policy.

But Trump is not the only wild card. Speaking at a Foreign Ministry luncheon on Tuesday, Alexander Huang, chairman of Taiwan’s Council on Strategic and Wargaming Studies, said that whether Taiwan ends up a bargaining chip will also come down to Xi, who is in a powerful position after China’s recent party congress.

“Many have debated here in Taiwan whether President Trump will trade Taiwan in exchange for China’s position in North Korea,” Huang said. “But my hunch is that even if President Trump makes such an offer, President Xi would say no: ‘Taiwan is not in your hands. It’s in mine.’”

David Nakamura and Luna Lin in Beijing contributed to this report.

Read more

Trump now says he will clear with China future calls with Taiwan’s president

With Xi at Mar-a-Lago, will Trump forget Taiwan?

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A police officer ties off crime scene tape near a small memorial close to the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs on Tuesday in Sutherland Springs, Texas. On Sunday, a gunman, Devin Patrick Kelley, killed 26 people at the church and wounded 20 more when he opened fire during a Sunday service.

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A police officer ties off crime scene tape near a small memorial close to the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs on Tuesday in Sutherland Springs, Texas. On Sunday, a gunman, Devin Patrick Kelley, killed 26 people at the church and wounded 20 more when he opened fire during a Sunday service.

Scott Olson/Getty Images

Devin Patrick Kelley, who left 26 people dead after opening fire at a Texas church on Sunday, was captured by police in 2012 after he escaped from a mental health institution. At the time, a hospital official told police that he was a danger to himself and others, and had issued death threats against “his military chain of command.”

The incident came shortly after Kelley was placed in pretrial confinement by the Air Force — for what would be months, a U.S. official tells NPR’s Tom Bowman — as he waited for his court-martial for assaulting his wife and young stepson.

The police report describing the incident was originally acquired by KPRC in Houston; the city of El Paso released a copy of the report to NPR.

Kelley was placed in pretrial confinement on June 8, 2012, the official tells Tom, and ended up at Peak Behavioral Health Services in Santa Teresa, N.M., on the outskirts of El Paso.

The hospital has declined to comment, saying in a statement that “we never discuss whether someone was or was not a patient at our hospital, and we never discuss any information about our patients.”

Late in the evening on June 13, according to the police report, the Peak official told El Paso police officers that Kelley was a missing person who “suffered from mental disorders” and had plans to run away from the facility and take a bus out of the state.

According to the report, the employee told police that Kelley “was a danger to himself and others as he had already been caught sneaking firearms onto [Holloman Air Force] base” and “was attempting to carry out death threats that [he] had made on his military chain of command.”

Kelley was located at a Greyhound station in El Paso. When police met with him, he didn’t resist or threaten to harm himself or others. He was handed over to local police from New Mexico.

About five months later, Kelley’s trial for assaulting his wife and stepson began.

Kelley pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 12 months in confinement for the crimes, which included fracturing his stepson’s skull.

Under federal law, his conviction made him ineligible for gun ownership, but an error by the Air Force meant his crimes were never entered into the federal crime database that tracks such offenses.

TOKYO — President Trump has said on several occasions that he’s willing talk to the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Well, on Wednesday, Trump did — after a fashion.

The American president directly addressed his 33-year-old nemesis during his speech to South Korea’s National Assembly. This time, Trump didn’t call Kim “Little Rocket Man” or use the kinds of rhetorical flourishes that play so well on Twitter.

But the words that Trump used will have cut deeper because they strike at the very heart of the Kim regime. 

If there is one thing that Kim Jong Un has shown that he cannot tolerate, it’s personal criticism.

“North Korea is not the paradise your grandfather envisioned,” Trump said to Kim, who, if he was in Pyongyang, was just 120 miles away. “It is a hell that no person deserves.” 

Kim Il Sung, who is revered like a god in North Korean propaganda, established the country in 1948 as a “socialist paradise” of free housing, health care, and education where people would want for nothing. Kim Jong Un claims his legitimacy to be the leader as the direct descendant of this quasi-deity. 

Trump devoted a large part of his address to detailing the human rights abuses that the Kims have committed in North Korea, filling his speech with words like “twisted,” “sinister,” “tyrant,” “fascism” and “cult.”

“I wanted to stand up from my seat and shout ‘yahoo!’” said Lee Hyeon-seo, an escapee from North Korea who was sitting in the assembly hall Wednesday during Trump’s address. “We just don’t hear people talking about North Korea in this way in South Korea, so I was very emotional during the speech. I was very impressed.”

[ In hard-line speech, Trump warns North Korea: ‘Do not underestimate us’ ]

Trump noted the slave-like conditions that North Korean workers endure, the malnutrition among children, the suppression of religion, and the forced-labor prison camps where North Koreans endure “torture, starvation, rape, and murder on a constant basis.”

Other advocates for North Koreans expressed hope that Trump’s remarks would remind the outside world that the country is not just home to a dictator with nuclear weapons, but 25 million people who suffer under him.

“President Trump spoke about human rights in North Korea more than any other previous U.S. president,” Jeong Kwang-il, who was held as a political prisoner in North Korea and now runs the “No Chain for North Korea” human rights group in Seoul. “I’m hopeful that American policy toward North Korea will focus more on improving human rights there.”

The president did not mince his words about the way the Kim regime has managed to retain its grip on the populace.

“North Korea is a country ruled as a cult. At the center of this military cult is a deranged belief in the leader’s destiny to rule as parent protector over a conquered Korean Peninsula and an enslaved Korean people,” he said. 

The success of South Korea discredited “the dark fantasy at the heart of the Kim regime,” Trump said.

It is hard to exaggerate the reverence with which North Koreans are forced to treat the Kim family. Every home and all public buildings must display portraits of Kim Il Sung and his son, Kim Jong Il, that must be cleaned only with a special cloth. North Koreans must bow at monuments to the leaders and sing songs celebrating their supposedly legendary feats.

[ Trump’s surprise visit to Korean demilitarized zone is foiled by weather ]

There is no escaping the Kims and the narrative that they have created a utopia that is the envy of the world. 

So to suggest that the regime is founded on a “fantasy” and that the country is something other than a socialist paradise amounts to heresy in North Korea.

“This speech made the ‘axis of evil’ speech look friendly,” said John Delury, a professor of international relations at Yonsei University in Seoul, referring to President George W. Bush’s 2002 State of the Union speech, in which he included North Korea as a country seeking weapons of mass destruction.

“That sent a signal to Pyongyang that the Americans are not open to changing their relationship with North Korea and that the president was deeply hostile and ideologically hostile to them.”

But others saw an opening from Trump, with his suggestion there was a way out of the current quagmire. “Despite every crime you have committed against God and man … we will offer a path to a much better future,” Trump said, saying that this would require total denuclearization.

The president publicly offered a “diplomacy exit ramp” to the Kim regime, Victor Cha, tipped to be Trump’s nominee for ambassador to South Korea, wrote on Twitter.

At a press conference with South Korean president Moon Jae-in the previous day, Trump urged North Korea “to come to the table” and “do the right thing, not only for North Korea but for humanity all over the world.”

At recent meetings near Geneva and in Moscow, Pyongyang’s representatives have signaled an interest in talks with the United States — as long as those talks are not about denuclearization, a non-starter for Washington.

[ Kim Jong Un calls Trump a ‘mentally deranged U.S. dotard’ ]

The regime in Pyongyang is likely to react angrily to Trump’s speech.

After Trump threatened at the U.N. General Assembly in September to “totally destroy” North Korea and mocked Kim as “Rocket Man,” Kim took the unprecedented step of releasing a statement in his own name, calling Trump a “mentally deranged U.S. dotard” who would “pay dearly” for his threats. 

At the same time, North Korea’s foreign minister said the country might detonate a nuclear device over the Pacific. 

A U.N. Commission of Inquiry once charged that the blame for North Korea’s human rights abuses went all way to the top of the leadership, leading to calls for Kim Jong Un to be referred to the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity.

That prompted North Korean officials to respond publicly to questions about human rights conditions in a way they had not before — a clear attempt to defend the dignity of their leader.

 “North Korea tends to react sensitively to criticism in human rights,” said Cheong Seong-chang, director of the unification strategy program at the Sejong Institute, a private think tank in South Korea.

He predicted that the response would be especially sharp because of the time that Trump spent talking about North Korea and the detail he went into, plus the president’s repeated calls for the world to isolate the country.

“North Korea is highly likely to take Trump’s address as a declaration of war and call for a holy war of its own against the U.S.,” Cheong said.

Yoonjung Seo in Seoul contributed reporting.

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Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the world

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