US leaves Taiwan wanting more with latest official visit off the menu
- EPA boss Andrew Wheeler’s travel plans postponed one day after Taipei celebrated another high-ranking guest from Washington
- Wheeler would have been the fourth senior representative to travel to the island in as many months
The fourth course of a feast of high-ranking US official visits to the self-ruled island of Taiwan has been ruled off the menu, with the indefinite postponement of US environmental chief Andrew Wheeler’s planned visit for three days in early December.
He would have been the fourth senior Washington official to travel to Taipei in as many months, as the Trump administration has stepped up its ties with the island, which Beijing regards as part of its territory, to be returned by force if necessary.
The following day, Su’s dinner plans were disrupted when US Environmental Protection Agency spokesman James Hewitt said Wheeler’s visit had been postponed “due to pressing priorities at home”. The announcement followed a report in The New York Times last week which put the cost of the trip at US$45,000.
The report questioned the justification for the visit – during a government transition and with Wheeler soon to leave office – as well as the cost to taxpayers which included US$25,000 in chartered flights, according to The Times.
Hewitt criticised the premature exposure of Wheeler’s planned visit to Taiwan, saying “it is disturbing that a government official would leak deliberative schedules … that could jeopardise both international diplomacy and personal security, and we are referring the matter to the inspector general.”
He also said there was no plan for Wheeler to make separate trips to Panama, Costa Rica, Ecuador and the Dominican Republic in January, as reported by The Times.