Taiwan leader now expected to stop in US cities of Houston and Los Angeles during South American trip, sources say
Tsai Ing-wen’s US stopovers would come on her way to and back from Mario Benitez’s inauguration as president of Paraguay
Washington has agreed to let Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen pass through the US cities of Houston and Los Angeles during her to South America for Mario Benitez’s inauguration as president of Paraguay next month, sources told the South China Morning Post.
Tsai would stop in the cities in the southern state of Texas and the southwest state of California on her way to and from Paraguay, the only South American country among 18 nations that has full diplomatic relations with the self-ruled island, according to two people with close ties to both the US and Taiwan authorities.
Tsai would be greeted and sent off by a deputy-assistant-secretary level diplomat from the US State Department and the chairman of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), one of the sources said.
AIT is a non-profit organisation financed by the US government with a de facto embassy function: maintaining ties the US has unofficially kept with Taiwan since 1979, when Washington switched its diplomatic recognition from the island to mainland China.
China’s government has long objected to the US practice of allowing Taiwan presidents to use American territory for travel, a result of the “one China” policy under which Beijing views Taiwan as a wayward province that could be brought to the mainland’s rule by force if necessary.
