Taiwanese presidential contender William Lai’s planned visit to US leads Beijing to lodge formal protest

The foreign ministry said there would be a ‘strong and resolute’ response if Lai, the current front runner, stops over in the US en route to Paraguay
Taiwanese government said a visit by Lai, the candidate of the independence-leaning DPP, would be in line with usual practice

Taiwan

Orange Wang

Published: 8:55pm, 17 Jul 2023

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Beijing has lodged a formal protest with Washington over a planned visit to the United States next month by Taiwanese presidential hopeful and vice-president William Lai Ching-te, vowing “strong and resolute” action in response.

When asked on Monday about the planned stopover by Lai, the candidate of the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said Beijing has made “solemn representations” to the US.

“China firmly opposes any form of official US-Taiwan interactions, firmly opposes Taiwan independence separatists visiting the US under any name or reason and firmly opposes the US indulging and supporting Taiwan independence separatists and their separatist actions in any form,” she told a news briefing in Beijing.

“China will closely monitor the situation and take strong and resolute measures to defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

Taipei has confirmed that Lai will pass through the US in mid-August en route to Paraguay for the inauguration of the new president Santiago Pena.

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In response, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned Beijing on Monday against using the transit as a “pretext for provocative action”, calling it a “common practice”.

“We expect that he will transit the United States on both the incoming and outgoing legs of a trip that he plans to take to Paraguay. This is very routine, given the distances travelled, to have a transit point”, Blinken said of Lai, noting that the US had hosted 10 vice-presidential transits over the past couple of decades and there was “no reason for the PRC to use this transit as a pretext for provocative action”.

He also asserted that the contentious layover was “fully consistent” with Washington’s commitment to “preserving peace and stability” in the Taiwan Strait.

Blinken, who visited Beijing in June as part of an effort to stabilise communications between the two global powers amid a fierce competition for economic and technological pre-eminence, shared that he had “repeatedly” told his Chinese counterparts that the US harbours no desire to change the status quo on the Taiwan Strait.

“Our policy hasn’t changed. We fully expect that neither side will unilaterally change the status quo. We fully expect that everyone involved will resolve any differences peacefully. And, again, this transit is fully consistent with that policy”, he said.

Taiwanese foreign vice-minister Alexander Yui Tah-ray said it was the norm for Taiwanese leaders to stop over in the US when visiting South and Central America.

“We’ll follow the previous usual practice this time and handle vice-president Lai’s transit with the principles of comfort, convenience, safety and dignity,” he told a press conference on Monday.

Lai’s anticipated stopover to the US will come just five months before the 2024 Taiwanese presidential election.

He will be the second presidential candidate to visit the US after Ko Wen-je of the Taiwan People’s Party, who spent three weeks there in April.

Lai has consistently been leading the polls in the run-up to the election, leaving Ko and Hou Yu-ih, the candidate of the mainland-friendly Kuomintang, vying for second place.

Taiwan is a long-standing source of friction in the relationship between Beijing and Washington, but in recent years it has emerged as one of the main sources of acrimony.

The situation has also caused increasing alarm among US allies in the region, and on Monday New Zealand’s Prime Minister Chris Hipkins became the latest leader to express concern about “rising tensions” in the Taiwan Strait.

Responding to Hipkins’s comments, Mao said that “the Taiwan question is China’s internal affair, and the most important and crucial thing to maintain peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait is to adhere to the one-China principle.”

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Earlier this year, Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen visited New York and California, meeting House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on the latter leg of her journey, as part of a tour that also included visits to Guatemala and Belize.

Tsai’s meeting with McCarthy prompted an angry response from Beijing – which regards any meetings between US government officials and Taiwanese officials as a breach of its sovereignty.

It responded with a series of extensive military drills similar to those carried out last August when McCarthy’s predecessor Nancy Pelosi visited the island.

Beijing regards Taiwan as a breakaway province and has not ruled out the use of force to bring it under mainland control. Most countries, including the US, do not formally recognise the island as a sovereign state but oppose any forcible change to the status quo.

Pena visited Taipei last week and met both Lai and Tsai, while Beijing sent navy ships and a large group of warplanes including fighter jets and bombers toward the island.

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When asked whether Taipei was worried about more military exercises due to Lai’s trip, Yui played down the threat saying Taiwanese vice-presidents have made 10 such visits to the US before.

“There is no reason or cause [for Beijing] to create unnecessary harassment,” he said.

Additional reporting by Khushboo Razdan