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Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen on Thursday, ahead of her trip to visit Taiwan allies in the Pacific. Photo: Reuters

China calls on US to keep Taiwan president from stopping in Hawaii

  • Tsai Ing-wen begins trip to Pacific diplomatic allies Palau, Nauru and Marshall Islands
  • Beijing reiterates its opposition to US transit accommodation that might ‘send any wrong signals’

China called on the US on Thursday to bar Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen from making a stopover in Hawaii on her trip to visit diplomatic allies in the Pacific.

“On Taiwan’s leader’s stopover in the US, China has expressed our stance multiple times. We have lodged stern representations with the United States. We firmly oppose the US, or other countries that have official diplomatic relations with China, arranging this kind of transit,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said in a daily briefing.

“We call for the US to scrupulously abide by the ‘one China’ principle … not to let Tsai Ing-wen cross their border, not to send any wrong signals to the Taiwan independence forces, and to protect Sino-US relations with practical actions.”

Tsai departed Taiwan on Thursday to tour Palau, Nauru and the Marshall Islands, a trip that is scheduled to include a stopover in Hawaii next Wednesday.

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Beijing regards Taiwan as a breakaway province that must eventually be reunited with the mainland, by force if necessary, and views any pro-independence activity as contrary to China’s national interests.

Beijing has taken an increasingly hard line since Tsai, of the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party, took office in 2016 and refused to acknowledge the one-China consensus that has formed the basis of cross-strait relations since 1992.

Since then, Beijing has wooed away five diplomatic allies of Taipei – including the Central American nations El Salvador, Dominican Republic and Panama – leaving just 17 mostly small, undeveloped countries that formally recognise the island.

Among Taiwan’s remaining allies, six are from the Pacific. Four of those island nations, however, have elections this year, putting Taipei’s Pacific stronghold under increasing pressure.

Tsai, who is running for re-election in 2020, is also facing increasing domestic pressure after the CPP suffered major setbacks in municipal elections last November, and she was forced to step down as party chairwoman.

Beijing ‘won’t allow Taiwan reunification to be postponed indefinitely’

The self-ruled island is seen as an important card for Washington to play against the mainland, especially as China-US relations tighten on both economic and strategic fronts.

Washington officially shifted its diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979, but maintains unofficial ties with Taiwan.

Beijing has been offended by the cooperation between Washington and Taipei, which has increased significantly under the Trump administration. When Washington approved the sale of US$330 million of military equipment to the island in September, Beijing warned of “severe damage” to bilateral relations.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: u.s. urged to block hawaii stopover of tsai on pacific trip
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