Less than two weeks after Tsai’s comments, Senator Tammy Duckworth, visiting Taipei with two other US lawmakers, said the United States would donate 750,000 vaccine doses to Taiwan.

Beijing blocked Taiwan’s deal to buy BioNTech vaccines, Tsai says

Speaking to the Illinois Democrat during a stop over in San Francisco while on the way back to Taiwan from Honduras, Lai offered his thanks.

Lai said he was “especially grateful to her last year when Taiwan was unable to obtain vaccines due to the China factor”, Taiwan’s presidential office said, citing the de facto US ambassador to Washington Hsiao Bi-khim, who is accompanying Lai.

“She not only actively advocated that the Biden administration should provide vaccines to Taiwan, but also personally went to Taiwan to announce that the United States would donate Taiwan vaccines.”

In Beijing, China’s foreign ministry said Lai’s accusation was “total fiction”, calling it a “malicious slandering and smearing of the true face of the mainland”.

As vaccine tensions rise, some in Taiwan head to mainland China for a jab

Taiwan eventually began receiving the BioNTech vaccines, jointly developed with Pfizer Inc, in September.

But that was only after Taiwan’s government allowed major Apple Inc supplier Foxconn, as well as its high-profile billionaire founder, Terry Gou, along with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd and a Taiwanese Buddhist group to negotiate on its behalf for the doses.

While Lai, a possible presidential candidate in 2024, was ostensibly abroad for the new Honduran president’s inauguration, he made good use of his time overseas to engage in diplomacy with the United States, Taiwan’s most important international backer and arms supplier.

He briefly talked to US Vice-President Kamala Harris while in Honduras, drawing Chinese anger, and on Friday had a virtual meeting with US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, one of the ruling Democratic Party’s most high-profile politicians.

“I was pleased to meet with @SpeakerPelosi, a champion of human rights and true friend to Taiwan. We are committed to working together to strengthen the US-Taiwan partnership,” Lai tweeted, sharing a picture of the video call.

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Cross-strait politics get in the way of Taiwan’s desperate need for Covid-19 vaccines

Cross-strait politics get in the way of Taiwan’s desperate need for Covid-19 vaccines

On Saturday Lai also spoke to three former members of the Trump administration, including former national security adviser H.R. McMaster and Matt Pottinger, Trump’s then-senior Asia adviser, Taiwan’s presidential office said.

That hour-long discussion focused on military issues including “the proper preparations Taiwan” should have to maintain security and stability in the Taiwan Strait, the statement said.

China’s foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said on Sunday that China firmly opposed any form of official exchange between the US and Taiwan, and has lodged a “solemn representation” with the United States over Lai’s virtual meetings with US lawmakers.

“We urge the US to abide by the one-China principle and the stipulations in the three China-US joint communiqués, immediately stop the erroneous acts of having official exchanges with Taiwan, avoid sending any wrong signal to the ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist forces, and refrain from further undermining China-US relations and peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.”

China has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control. Only 14 countries maintain official ties with the island, viewed by Beijing as Chinese territory with no right to the trappings of a state.