Taiwan on Tuesday confirmed President Tsai Ing Wen would be making sensitive stopovers in the U.S. while transiting on her way to and from Central America.
What Happened: Taiwan presidential office spokesperson Lin Yu Chan told the media that Tsai would transit through New York and Los Angeles as part of a trip to Guatemala and Belize.
Tsai will be leaving Taipei on March 29 and returning on April 7 after visiting diplomatic allies in Latin America, the Caribbean and the Pacific. Taiwan has not yet commented on the president's plan to meet U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, which will likely further fuel China-U.S. tensions. According to Reuters sources, McCarthy intends to meet the Taiwanese leader during the California leg of her visit.
As the U.S., like most countries, doesn’t have official diplomatic relations with Taiwan due to its disputed status, Taiwanese presidents routinely pass through the U.S. and engage in high-level meetings instead of formal visits.
Beijing, earlier, reacting to reports about Tsai's potential visit to the U.S., said it is “seriously concerned” and asked Washington to clarify.
Before Taiwan confirmed Tsai's plan, a senior U.S. official said her expected transits are standard practice and Beijing should not use them as a pretext for aggressive action toward the self-governed island. The official added that every Taiwanese president had transited through the U.S. and that Tsai has done so herself six times since taking office 2016, most recently in 2019.
Last year, when then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan, it infuriated China and led to Beijing staging war games near Strait.
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