Will Donald Trump meet Taiwan’s next vice-president on private trip to Washington?

Pro-independence advocate William Lai is expected to attend a prayer breakfast, raising possibility of meeting with the US president

Visit is most high-profile call in US from Taiwanese politician in decades

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Democratic Progressive Party presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (left) and running mate William Lai Ching‑te (right) join supporters at an election rally in Taipei last month. Photo: AP

Published: 2:55pm, 3 Feb 2020Updated: 6:25pm, 14 Feb 2020

Taiwan’s vice president-elect William Lai Ching-te will make the most high-profile visit to the United States by a politician from the self-governing island in decades, a move that is likely to further strain ties between Washington and Beijing as the world seeks a coordinated response to a deadly coronavirus outbreak.

Lai is expected to attend the annual National Prayer Breakfast in the US capital on Wednesday, setting up the possibility of a meeting with President Donald Trump.

Lai, a vocal advocate of formal independence for Taiwan, will not hold an official government position until he is sworn in in May and is travelling in a private capacity. But his trip is the most visible to the US capital by a senior Taiwanese politician since the US severed ties with the democratically run island in 1979.

The visit comes after incumbent President Tsai Ing-wen, Lai’s running mate, won re-election in a landslide last month.

“Lai is a pretty radioactive figure for Beijing as he is seen as a [stalking] horse for independence within Tsai’s circle,” said Shelley Rigger, a political science professor focusing on Taiwan and China at Davidson College in North Carolina. “Beijing will react strongly, so there’s a lot of risks for Taiwan and Tsai in a meeting between Lai and Trump.”

Taiwanese politicians frequently travel to the US, but visiting Washington itself has remained off-limits to senior government officials for American fears of angering Beijing, which claims the island as part of its territory.