Taiwan’s president departed Saturday for a visit to the South Pacific that may embody a two-day transit within the U.S., his first since assuming workplace.
The deliberate stopovers in Hawaii and the territory of Guam have already drawn fierce criticism from Beijing, which claims Taiwan as its personal territory and objects to official exchanges between it and the U.S., the island’s greatest backer and army supplier.
Lai Ching-te left on a weeklong journey to go to the Marshall Islands, Tuvalu and Palau — three diplomatic allies of the self-governed island within the Pacific.
“I need to use the values of democracy, peace, and prosperity to proceed to broaden our cooperation with our allies, to deepen our partnership and let the world see Taiwan not simply as a mannequin of democracy, however an important energy in selling the world’s peace and stability, and affluent growth,” he stated at Taoyuan Worldwide Airport forward of his departure.
Although Taiwan retains robust contacts with dozens of different nations, it has solely 12 formal diplomatic allies. The self-ruled democracy has lately been dealing with rising strain from China.
It’s unclear whether or not Lai will meet with any members of the incoming U.S. administration throughout his transit.
President-elect Donald Trump stated in an interview with Bloomberg in July that Taiwan ought to pay for its protection. The island has bought billions of {dollars} of protection weaponry from the U.S.
Trump evaded answering whether or not he would defend the island from Chinese language army motion. On Friday, the U.S. State Division stated it authorized the sale of $385 million in spare elements and tools for the fleet of F-16s, in addition to help for tactical communication system to Taiwan.
Whereas the U.S. is obligated to assist the island defend itself below the Taiwan Relations Act, it has maintained a place of strategic ambiguity over whether or not it will ever get entangled if Taiwan had been to be invaded by China.
A second Trump administration is predicted to check U.S.-China relations much more than the Republican’s first time period, when the U.S. imposed tariffs on greater than $360 billion in Chinese language merchandise. Taiwan is without doubt one of the most important sources of rigidity within the bilateral relationship.
Chinese language International Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning stated on Friday if the U.S. needed to keep up peace within the Taiwan Strait, it is crucial for it to deal with the Taiwan challenge “with utmost warning, clearly opposing Taiwan independence and supporting China’s peaceable reunification.”
She additionally stated China firmly opposes any type of official interplay between the U.S. and Taiwan, together with visits by Taiwan’s leaders to the U.S. for any purpose.
When former Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen went to the U.S. final yr as a part of a transit to Latin America, it drew vocal opposition from China. Tsai met with the previous Home Speaker Kevin McCarthy on the time.
The Chinese language army additionally launched drills round Taiwan final yr as a “stern warning” over what it known as collusion between “separatists and overseas forces” days after Lai, then Taiwan’s vice chairman, stopped over within the U.S.
China additionally strongly objects to main American politicians visiting the island because it views any official contact with overseas governments and Taiwan as an infringement on its claims of sovereignty over Taiwan. Washington switched its formal recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979.
