Vice President Lai Ching-te, who is also a presidential candidate, will stop in the U.S. on his way to attend the inauguration of Paraguay’s president in mid-August, the island’s presidential office said at a news conference Monday.
Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Alexander Tah-ray Yui, speaking at the press conference, did not say which city Lai will transit through but that the trip will be “planned according to precedent set by previous trips to South and Central America, for which transit stops in the U.S. were arranged.”
Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen transited through the U.S. in April on her way to official meetings in Guatemala and Belize. While Tsai met with U.S. lawmakers in New York and California, including House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), the “transit” description gives it the veneer of an unofficial and private visit.
A State Department spokesperson told The Hill that Lai will make two-stopovers through the U.S., going to and from his visits in South America, and said that the travel is “routine given the distances involved.”
The U.S. has “explained to Beijing that there is no reason for them to overreact to this transit or to use it as a pretext for provocative action in the Strait or for interference in Taiwan’s election,” the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson added that Lai’s transit is in line with the “One China” policy, which allows Taiwanese officials to operate independently from the People’s Republic of China (PRC), the official name for the Chinese government in Beijing, while withholding recognition of Taiwan as an independent state.
But the PRC is “firmly” opposed to any form of “official interaction” between the U.S. and Taiwan, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters in a briefing Monday.
“The Taiwan question is the very core of China’s core interests and the first red line that must not be crossed in the China-U.S. relations,” Mao said.
The PRC has taken action against Taiwan in response to contacts between Taipei and Washington. This includes live-fire military drills around the island in response to a visit to Taipei by then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in August 2022.
Read the full report at TheHill.com.
