From the New York Times, I'm Sabrina Tavernici. This is the Daily.

For decades, the United States has walked a careful line when it comes to Taiwan,

vowing to protect the island from China, without saying exactly how far it would go to do that.

On Monday, that appeared to change. I spoke to my colleague, David Sanger,

on why the shift in thinking about Taiwan has a lot to do with the lessons of the war in Ukraine.

It's Tuesday, May 24.

So, David, tell us what happened over the weekend.

Sabrina, President Biden was on his really first big trip to Northeast Asia,

since he became president. And that was a big deal, because his foreign policy,

prior to the invasion of Ukraine, was all about the pivot Asia,

to focusing American attention on China, because that's where our biggest competition economically comes from,

because that's where our biggest military competition comes from,

and because that's where our biggest technological competition comes from.

So, he made his first stop in South Korea, and he was barely off the airplane,

before he was in a Samsung factory that makes semiconductors, a factory that is being replicated in the United States,

and the whole purpose of that visit was to say South Korea, our ally, is helping us become less dependent on China for microelectronics.

And then he went on to the usual visits there, and then he got to Japan, where he met with Fumio Kishida, the Prime Minister.

The Prime Minister of Japan, and the President of the United States.

They had a brief press conference.

Thank you very much, Mr. Prime Minister.

And President Biden was asked about Taiwan, the island that has long been at the center of tension between the US and China.

And the question has always been,

...