US hopes for low-key stopover by Taiwanese presidential contender

William Lai, Taiwan’s current vice-president, will be en route to Paraguay when he stops in New York this weekend

‘I don’t think that this transit is going to make as much news as maybe some people would otherwise have expected,’ one analyst says

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Taiwanese Vice-President William Lai, who is leading in the race to be elected the island’s next president, plans to stop in the US twice en route a trip to Paraguay. Photo: Reuters

Published: 5:38am, 12 Aug 2023Updated: 7:10pm, 12 Aug 2023

US and Taiwanese authorities are expected to keep this weekend’s US stopover by DPP presidential candidate William Lai Ching-te as low-key as possible, though it might not forestall an increase in military exercises in the Taiwan Strait, Washington analysts with ties to the White House said Friday.

Lai, Taiwan’s vice-president and the leading candidate in the January 13 presidential election, is scheduled to stop in New York on Saturday for at least one night en route to Paraguay, and for less than a day in San Francisco on Wednesday on his return trip.

“I don’t think that this transit is going to make as much news as maybe some people would otherwise have expected,” said Zack Cooper, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. “I do think we will see substantial number of aircraft cross the median line and those other kinds of concerning behaviour.

“The Chinese are trying very hard to build that in as part of the status quo so we get used to it.”

People’s Liberation Army fighter jets during combat training exercises over the Taiwan Strait after then-US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taipei last August. Photo: Xinhua via AP

The self-governing island has repeatedly arranged stopovers to try to bolster its international presence, which Beijing views as extremely provocative and destabilising.

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