Taiwan’s president Tsai Ing-wen ‘hopes to meet Trump’s transition team’ during Latin America visit
After last week’s phone call furore, Taiwanese media reports say Tsai, who will travel through New York, wants to make contact with US president-elect’s transition team
Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen is expected to visit three diplomatic allies in Central America next month in a trip the island’s media said might enable her to meet with US president-elect Donald Trump’s transition team.
Tsai is due to visit Guatemala in the second week of January and is likely to transit through New York where she will try to meet with Trump’s team before his inauguration, the reports said.
Any possible meeting in New York would be closely watched after Trump and Tsai spoke by phone last Friday.
It was the first time the two sides’ leaders have made direct contact since 1979 and the call enraged Beijing as it suggested that Trump might fail to adhere to the one China principle.
Beijing considers Taiwan a breakaway Chinese province. It has repeatedly warned other countries against making formal contact with the island’s leaders.
Taiwan’s National Security Bureau said on Monday it was “not unlikely that the phone call would spur increased efforts by Beijing to isolate Taiwan internationally”.