Speaking at a daily news briefing in Beijing on July 31, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said China made filed formal statements with the U.S. government, urging Washington not to allow President Tsai Ing-wen (shown) of the Republic of China (ROC) on Taiwan to make stops in the United States during her visit to Belize and Paraguay this month.
“We have consistently resolutely opposed the United States or other countries with which China has diplomatic relations arranging this kind of transit,” Geng said.
A July 31 article about Tsai’s upcoming trip in Taiwan Today said Tsai will make stopovers in Los Angeles and Houston on the outbound and inbound legs of her trip to Paraguay and Belize and return to Taiwan on August 20, but provided no details about the nature of the stopovers or if any U.S. officials will meet with her.
When the United States established diplomatic relations with the communist regime ruling the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 1979, it also ended official recognition of the ROC on Taiwan, but continued to maintain unofficial relations with the island nation.
While the United States was once a staunch ally of the ROC, the U.S. government for decades backed off in its support of Taiwan due to pressure from the much-larger communist PRC on the mainland. However, Taipei and Washington have been working toward a closer relationship since President Trump took office last year and Tsai Ing-wen assumed her position in 2016.
“After the new governments of the U.S. and Taiwan formed, after Trump and Tsai Ing-wen took office, the situation is definitely one that the Chinese do not want to see,” VOA quoted Gratiana Jung, a senior political researcher with the Yuanta-Polaris Research Institute think tank in Taipei.
While there are no official diplomatic relations between the United States and Taiwan, VOA cited media reports from Washington stating that the State Department has requested that U.S. Marines help guard the American Institute in Taipei, which the New York Times has described as “the United States’ embassy here in all but name.”
With U.S.-Taiwanese relations on the upswing, China’s protestations about President Tsai’s stopovers in the United States are likely to fall on deaf ears.
Photo: Presidential Office Building, Taiwan, via flickr
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