Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen will be making stops in the United States on her way to Central America, but there is no confirmation of a meeting with US House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
Taiwanese presidents routinely pass through the United States while visiting diplomatic allies in Latin America, the Caribbean and the Pacific, which, while not official visits, are often used by both sides for high-level meetings.
The United States, like most countries, has no formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan, which the Chinese claim, but it is an important international support and arms supplier.
Tsai will transit through New York and Los Angeles as part of a trip to Guatemala and Belize, leaving Taipei on March 29 and returning on April 7, presidential office spokeswoman Lin Yu-chan told reporters.
Sources told Reuters that McCarthy plans to meet her during the California portion of his visit.
Asked if he could confirm the meeting with McCarthy, Taiwan’s Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Yui said details of US transits would be provided at a later date once agreements were finalized.
China claims the United States is in a plot with Taiwan to defy Beijing by supporting those who want the island to formally declare independence.
In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said he was strongly opposed to any contact between the United States and the Taiwanese government and had already made “stern representations” to Washington about the stopovers.
“We again warn the Taiwanese authorities that there is no way out of Taiwan’s independence, and any illusions about attempts to collude with external forces to seek independence and provocation are doomed to fail,” Wang said.
Guatemala and Belize are two of only 14 countries that maintain formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Honduras said last week it would pursue diplomatic ties with Beijing but has not yet severed them with Taiwan.
Speaking shortly before Tsai’s trip was announced, a senior US government official said the stopovers were standard practice and China should not use them as a pretext for aggressive action against the democratically governed island.
Taiwan is China’s most sensitive territorial issue and a major sticking point with Washington, which maintains only unofficial ties with Taipei but is bound by US law to provide the island with the means to defend itself.
Taiwan’s government says the People’s Republic of China has never ruled the island and therefore has no claim to it, and that only its 23 million people can decide its future.
Source: CNN Brasil
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