Taiwan Vice President to visit US in anticipation of leadership bid
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Despite Chinese warnings, Taiwanese presidents and vice presidents began to travel via the US toward countries that maintain official diplomatic ties with Taiwan.
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Taiwan's vice-president William Lai gestures outside the campaign headquarters in Taipei after his election victory in 2020. (AFP)
Taiwan's Vice President, William Lai, is scheduled to visit the United States next month as part of his transit to and from Paraguay. While these are official stopovers, the visit provides an opportunity for Lai to meet with US officials.
Despite Chinese warnings, It became customary for Taiwanese presidents and vice presidents to transit through the United States on trips to countries that maintain formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan. This visit carries added significance as Lai is a presidential candidate for Taiwan's next election in January.
Presidential candidates typically visit the United States before the election to discuss their campaigns with American officials. That said, Lai is currently leading in opinion polls. It is worth noting that China typically expresses dissatisfaction with such transits, and in the past, it has staged war games around Taiwan in response.
However, Taiwanese officials downplayed concerns about Chinese reactions, claiming that such stopovers are a normal practice. Paraguay's president-elect, Santiago Pena, recently visited Taiwan, and the country maintains formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, along with 12 other nations. In response to Lai's visit, China has lodged a complaint with the United States, expressing opposition to any support for Taiwan's independence separatist forces.
"China is opposed to any form of connivance and support of Taiwan independence separatist forces," Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a press conference.
While Western countries, led by the United States, have increased China provocations in recent months, especially in the South China Sea, Beijing stressed on numerous occasions that reunification between the mainland and Taiwan is an "unstoppable historical trend" and that it will resolutely fight "Taiwan independence."
