Hong Kong () — Taiwan has every right to “connect with the world,” its president, Tsai Ing-wen, declared Wednesday as she embarked on a diplomatic mission to Central America, which will include transit through the United States, and has already been condemned by China.
Tsai left Taiwan on Wednesday for a 10 day trip in which it will make stops in New York City and Los Angeles as well as official visits to Guatemala and Belize.
“External pressure will not stop our determination to move towards international partnership,” Tsai told reporters before taking off. “We are calm, confident, uncompromising and not provocative.”
The trip has drawn a lot of attention following reports that Tsai would meet US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy during one of his unofficial stops in the US.
Taiwan has yet to confirm such a meeting.
Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen waves near the departure gate as she departs on a 10-day international trip on March 29, 2023. (Credit: Ann Wang/Reuters)
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 before Tsai’s departure and vowed on Wednesday to “resolutely counterattack” if Tsai met McCarthy, a move Beijing would see as an infringement of its sovereignty.
It also targeted the US while Tsai was en route, with the Foreign Ministry calling on Washington to stop committing “dangerous acts that underscore the political foundation of the two countries’ relations.”
“It is not the Chinese side that is overreacting, but the American side that is hell-bent on colluding to support the separatist forces for Taiwan independence,” spokesman Mao Ning said, using a general phrase used by Beijing to discredit Taipei.
The ruling Communist Party of China claims the island’s autonomous democracy as its own even though it has never controlled it and has not ruled out the use of force to someday take over Taiwan.
Washington believes there is “absolutely no reason” for Beijing to use the Tsai transit as an excuse to carry out “aggressive or coercive activities” directed at Taiwan, a senior US administration official told reporters. though privately there are concerns among some US officials about how Beijing may react.
Beijing fired multiple missiles and launched extensive military patrols around the island following a visit by then-US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi last August, the first visit by a lawmaker of her rank in 25 years.
The visit also put significant strain on US-China bilateral relations, despite lawmakers making their itineraries and decisions on overseas activities independently of the US executive branch.
Tense ties between Washington and Beijing over Taiwan
Tsai’s trip also comes at a sensitive time in already strained US-China relations.
A expected visit of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to Beijing last month, part of an attempt by both sides to stabilize the deteriorating relationship, was called off after a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon was shot down over the US. USA
US officials have engaged in multiple communications with Chinese officials in Washington and Beijing over the past few weeks to provide them with information about the past transits of Taiwanese presidents to the United States, a senior administration official told reporters last week.
The US official said China’s responses indicated that it did not plan to treat this transit as it had in the past.
“In all previous transits, Speaker Tsai has met with members of Congress, as well as state and local officials. She made public appearances and attended engagements with the Taiwanese diaspora,” the official said. “As in previous years, President Tsai will be received by the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the American Institute (AIT) in Taiwan during this transit.”
AIT is the organization that conducts unofficial US relations with Taiwan. Tsai has transited the United States six times while she has been president, according to US officials.
Due to the unofficial relationship the US has with Taiwan, Tsai’s stop in the US is not characterized as an official visit to keep the US within the long-standing “One China” policy. .
Under the “One China” policy, the US acknowledges China’s position that Taiwan is part of China, but has never officially recognized Beijing’s claim to the island of 23 million people.
On Wednesday, a spokesman for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, Zhu Fenglian, accused the Taiwanese authorities of using such visits to “seek support from anti-China forces in the United States.”
A meeting between Tsai and McCarthy would also be “another provocation” that “undermines peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.”
“We strongly oppose this and will take steps to resolutely counterattack,” Zhu said.
Tsai’s diplomatic tour
Following her stopover in New York City, Tsai is expected to visit Guatemala on April 1 and Belize on April 3. She will pass through Los Angeles before returning to Taiwan on April 7, according to the Taiwan Presidential Office.
Tsai’s trip also comes as the island’s democracy seeks to shore up its diplomatic partnerships, which have decreased in number in recent years.
They received another blow on Saturday when Honduras formally established diplomatic ties with China and severed them with Taiwan. Beijing does not have diplomatic relations with countries that recognize Taipei.
Only 13 countries now have official relations with Taiwan, and several Central American and Pacific countries have switched recognition to China in recent years.
However, Taiwan has de facto, but not official, diplomatic relations with many Western nations, including the United States.
During her trip to Taipei last year, Pelosi, a California Democrat, said the visit was aimed at making it “unequivocally clear” that the United States would “not abandon” the democratically governed island.
Under Xi Jinping’s leadership, China has increased military, diplomatic and economic pressure on the island, even tempting Taipei’s allies to switch allegiances.
Those pressures are expected to increase in the coming months as Taiwan’s next presidential election in January approaches.
Tsai’s diplomatic tour also coincides with the first visit by a current or former Taiwanese leader to the mainland since the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949.
Former President Ma Ying-jeou, who served as Taiwan’s president from 2008 to 2016, is touring mainland China on what appears to be a private trip but comes at a time of deepening tensions over Taiwan’s future.
During his time as leader, Ma fostered stronger economic ties with China but held off Beijing’s push for reunification.
Speaking 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.
— Journalist Gladys Tsai in Taipei; ‘s Kylie Atwood and Jennifer Hansler in Washington, and Martha Zhou in Beijing contributed reporting. Previous report by Eric Cheung in Taipei.
