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.
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.
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.”
Related posts
China says it is looking at American proposals to scale down tariff war
China is assessing whether to start trade negotiations with the United States following representations from Washington,...-
The US is fixated on ‘beating China’. It needs to stop beating itself
From Sun Tzu to Carl von Clausewitz, strategists have long emphasised that the key to winning... -
Chinese firms in Vietnam halt new investment, face closure if Trump’s tariffs return
Shi Xinchuan, the owner of a hardware store in northern Vietnam, spends a lot of time...
