Taiwan’s William Lai speaks during a press conference on the Presidential Palace in Taipei on September 5, 2017.
SAM YEH/AFP/Getty Images
Taiwan Vice President William Lai leaves on Saturday for a sensitive trip to the USA, which China has condemned and Taiwanese officials fear could prompt more Chinese military activity across the democratically governed island.
Lai, the front-runner to change into Taiwan’s president in elections in January, is officially making only transit stops in the USA on his technique to and from Paraguay for the swearing in of its president.
Taipei and Washington say such stopovers are routine and no cause for China to take “provocative” actions, but Beijing has reacted with anger at what it sees as an additional sign of U.S. support for Taiwan, which it claims as sovereign Chinese territory.
China is prone to launch military drills next week near Taiwan, using Lai’s stopovers in the USA as a pretext to intimidate voters ahead of a next 12 months’s election and make them “fear war”, Taiwanese officials say.
Beijing particularly dislikes Lai, who has prior to now described himself as a “practical employee for Taiwan independence”. Lai has, nevertheless, repeatedly said throughout the election campaign he doesn’t seek to alter the establishment.
Lai, who goes first to Latest York, wrote in English on social media platform X, formerly called Twitter, he was “excited to satisfy with US friends in transit” and to be going to Paraguay, one among just 13 countries to take care of formal ties with Taipei.
Laura Rosenberger, chair of the Virginia-based American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), a U.S. government-run non-profit that carries out unofficial relations with Taiwan, responded on X that AIT was looking forward to welcoming him “during his transit en path to Paraguay”.
Neither Taiwan nor the USA have given exact details about his U.S. schedule. Lai’s official schedule for Sunday states merely that he’s going to Paraguay.
Lai, scheduled to talk to reporters at Taiwan’s fundamental international airport on Saturday afternoon before leaving, is to return from Paraguay via San Francisco.
The Paraguay leg of the trip can be vital given China’s increasing efforts to take Taiwan’s remaining allies.
Honduras, once a stalwart Taiwanese partner, switched relations to China in March. Lai went to Honduras last 12 months for the inauguration of its president and had a temporary though symbolic chat while there with U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris.
