Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen travels to New York to begin tour of Central America


Hong Kong
CNN

Taiwan has every right to “communicate with the world,” its President Tsai Ing-wen said on Wednesday as she embarked on a diplomatic mission to Central America that would include transit through the United States and has already been condemned by China.

Tsai left Taiwan on Wednesday for 10 day trip in which she will make stops in New York and Los Angeles on both sides of official visits to Guatemala and Belize.

“External pressure will not interfere with our determination to move towards the international community,” Tsai told reporters before takeoff. “We are calm, confident, uncompromising and non-provocative.”

The trip drew increased attention following reports that Tsai would meet Speaker of the US House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy during one of her unofficial US stops.

Taiwan has yet to confirm such a meeting.

McCarthy said this month that he would meet Tsai while she was in the US, though he did not give a date.

China opposed the trip ahead of Tsai’s departure, vowing on Wednesday to “strongly fight back” if Tsai met with McCarthy, a move Beijing would view as a violation of its sovereignty.

He also targeted the US as Tsai was on his way and the Foreign Office urged Washington to stop doing “dangerous acts that underscore the political basis of the two countries’ relationship.”

“It’s not the Chinese side that is overreacting, it’s the American side that continues to be condoning in order to support the separatist Taiwan independence forces,” spokesman Mao Ning said, using the catchphrase Beijing uses to discredit Taipei.

The ruling Communist Party of China considers the self-governing island democracy to be its own, despite having never controlled it. the use of force is not excluded one day take Taiwan.

Washington believes there is “absolutely no reason” for Beijing to use the Tsai transit as an excuse to take “aggressive or coercive action” against Taiwan, a senior US administration official told reporters, although privately some US officials have raised concerns that , Beijing can respond.

Beijing fired several rockets and began active military patrols around the island after the incident. visit by then-Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi August last year – the first from a deputy of her rank in 25 years.

The visit also created a significant strain on US-China bilateral relations, even as lawmakers determine their routes and decisions about overseas activities independently of the US executive branch.

Tsai’s trip also comes at a challenging time in an already strained US-China relationship.

An expected visit from US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken to Beijing last month — part of both sides’ attempt to stabilize deteriorating relations — was canceled after a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon was shot down over USA.

US officials have repeatedly spoken to Chinese officials in Washington and Beijing over the past few weeks to provide them with information about past transits of Taiwan’s presidents to the US, a senior administration official told reporters last week.

The US official said China’s responses showed that it does not plan to treat these transits the way they have treated them in the past.

“During all previous transits, President Tsai has met with members of Congress, as well as with state and local officials. She made public appearances and attended meetings with the Taiwanese diaspora,” the official said. “As in years past, during this transit, President Cai will be greeted by the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the American Institute (AIT) in Taiwan.”

AIT is an organization that maintains unofficial US relations with Taiwan. According to US officials, Tsai transited the US six times while she was president.

Due to the US’s unofficial relationship with Taiwan, Cai’s stopover in the US is not characterized as an official visit to keep the US in line with the longstanding “one China” policy.

As part of the One China policy, the US recognizes China’s position that Taiwan is part of China, but has never formally recognized Beijing’s claim to the island of 23 million people.

On Wednesday, Chinese Taiwan Affairs Administration spokesman Zhu Fenglian accused the Taiwanese authorities of using such visits to “request support from anti-Chinese forces in the United States.”

The meeting between Tsai and McCarthy will also be “another provocation” that “undermines peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.”

“We strongly oppose it and will take action to resolutely fight back,” Zhu said.

After a stop in New York, Tsai is expected to visit Guatemala on April 1 and Belize on April 3. She will transit in Los Angeles and then return to Taiwan on April 7, according to Taiwan’s presidential office.

Tsai’s trip also comes as the island’s democracies seek to strengthen their diplomatic partnerships that they have. decreased in number in recent years.

Those got another hit on Saturday when Honduras formally establishes diplomatic relations with China and severed them from Taiwan. Beijing does not have diplomatic relations with countries that recognize Taipei.

Currently, only 13 countries have official relations with Taiwan, with several Central American and Pacific countries switching recognition to China in recent years.

However, Taiwan has de facto but unofficial diplomatic relations with many Western countries, including the United States.

During her trip to Taipei last year, Pelosi, a California Democrat, said the visit was intended to “make it clear” that the US “will not give up” a democratically ruled island.

Under leader Xi Jinping, China has stepped up military, diplomatic and economic pressure on the island, including prompting Taipei’s allies to change their allegiance.

This pressure is only expected to intensify in the coming months as Taiwan’s next presidential election approaches in January.

Tsai’s diplomatic tour also coincides with the first visit by a current or former leader of Taiwan to the mainland since the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949.

Former President Ma Ying-jeou, who served as President of Taiwan from 2008 to 2016, touring mainland China in what is ostensibly a private trip, but it comes at a time of heightened tensions over the future of Taiwan.

During his time as leader, Ma encouraged stronger economic ties with China but held back Beijing’s push for reunification.

In comments in the eastern city of Nanjing at the Sun Yat-sen mausoleum on Tuesday, Ma said people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait were “ethnic Chinese” and shared the same ancestors.