Taiwan president to visit US but no word on House Speaker meeting
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[March 21, 2023]
By Ben Blanchard and Michael Martina
TAIPEI/WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen will make
sensitive stopovers in the United States on her way to and from Central
America that China's foreign ministry condemned on Tuesday, but Taipei
would not confirm a meeting with U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
Taiwanese presidents routinely pass through the United States while
visiting diplomatic allies in Latin America, the Caribbean and the
Pacific, which, although 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 Chinese-claimed Taiwan, but is its most important
international backer 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 April 7,
presidential office spokesperson Lin Yu-chan told reporters. Sources
have told Reuters that McCarthy intends to meet her during the
California leg of her visit.
Asked whether he could confirm the McCarthy meeting, Taiwan Vice Foreign
Minister Alexander Yui said details of the U.S. transits would be given
at a later date once arrangements had been finalised.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Mar/21/images/ads/current/2022%20Business%20Directory%20Cover%20lda%202022.png)
China staged war games near Taiwan in August after a Taipei visit by
then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
China has said the United States is colluding with Taiwan to challenge
Beijing, and is giving support to those who want the island to declare
formal independence.
In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said that it
strongly opposed any contacts between the United States and Taiwan's
government and that it had already made "stern representations" to
Washington about the stop-overs.
"We again warn the Taiwan authorities that there is no way out for
Taiwan independence, and any illusions about attempts to collude with
external forces to seek independence and provocation is doomed to fail,"
Wang said.
Guatemala and Belize are two of only 14 countries which maintain formal
diplomatic ties with Taiwan. Honduras said last week it would seek
diplomatic ties with Beijing, but has yet to break them off with Taiwan.
STANDARD PRACTICE
Speaking shortly before Taiwan's announcement of Tsai's trip, a senior
U.S. administration official said her expected transits are standard
practice and China should not use them as a pretext for aggressive
action toward the democratically governed island.
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![](../images/032123PIX/news_a16.jpg)
Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen speaks
during a news conference with the incoming Taiwan Premier Chen
Chien-jen and outgoing Taiwan Premier Su Tseng-chang at the
presidential office in Taipei, Taiwan January 27, 2023.
REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins/File Photo
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Mar/21/images/ads/current/debbies_lda_032222.png)
The senior U.S. official told reporters on a call on Monday night
that every president of Taiwan had transited through the U.S., and
that Tsai has done so herself six times since taking office 2016,
most recently in 2019.
She had met members of Congress during all of those visits, the
official added, noting that the COVID-19 pandemic had limited her
travel in recent years.
"We see no reason for Beijing to turn this transit, again, which is
consistent with long-standing U.S. policy, into anything but what it
is. It should not be used as a pretext to step up any aggressive
activity around the Taiwan Strait," the official said.
The official said Washington had communicated to Beijing that Tsai's
stopovers are in keeping with past precedent.
"There is nothing new from our point of view," the official said.
Noting that President Joe Biden hoped to speak to Chinese leader Xi
Jinping soon and that Secretary of State Antony Blinken would like
to reschedule a postponed trip to Beijing, the official said: "We
urge the PRC (People's Republic of China) to keep these channels of
communication open."
"In terms of contact with McCarthy's office, we offer briefings to
members before engagements. We tend to do that before travel, before
meetings. We've had some regular contact there," the official added.
Tsai's anticipated U.S. meeting with McCarthy is seen as a potential
alternative to a sensitive visit by the Republican Speaker to
Taiwan, a trip he has said he hopes to make.
Taiwan is China's most sensitive territorial issue and a major bone
of contention with Washington, which maintains only unofficial ties
with Taipei, but is required by U.S. law to provide the island with
the means to defend itself.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2022/Oct/22/images/ads/current/graue_sda_FAIR_2022.png)
Taiwan's government says the People's Republic of China has never
ruled the island and so has no right to claim it, and that only its
23 million people can decide their future.
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard and Michael Martina; Additional
reporting by Sarah Wu in Taipei and Steve Holland in Washington;
Editing by Stephen Coates and Gerry Doyle)
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