Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen arrived in New York on Wednesday amid a war of words between Washington and Beijing over her visit and threats of unspecified “countermeasures” by a Chinese official.
Tsai landed shortly before 3:00 p.m. at John F. Kennedy International Airport and was taken by security to the Lotte New York Palace hotel on Madison Avenue, past a crowd of closely watched fighting protesters and supporters. by the police, shortly after 4:00 p.m.
Armed with banners and loudspeakers, protesters led by the New York Alliance for the Peaceful Reunification of China, a local pro-Beijing group, arrived early and lined the street.
By the time of Tsai’s arrival, the group easily outnumbered Tsai’s supporters, most of whom did not arrive until about half an hour before the Taiwanese president, and although arguments broke out amid a tense mood , the police kept the two groups apart.
A member of the local Chinese community who requested anonymity for security reasons told Radio Free Asia that he had received a phone call from the Chinese Consulate in New York asking him to attend the protest to “safeguard the unity of the motherland.”
Travel itinerary
Tsai spends two nights in New York, delivering a speech and receiving a leadership award at the Hudson Institute on Thursday, before leaving Friday for official visits to Guatemala and Belize.
He returns to Los Angeles on Tuesday for two more nights in the United States, where he will deliver a speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and meet with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
The trip comes amid tensions between China and the United States over Taiwan in the past year, with US officials accusing Beijing of preparing to invade home rule island in the coming years and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi last year visiting the island.
It is not the first time that a Taiwanese leader has “traveled” United States, with the practice beginning in the 1990s, but Beijing seems upset by Tsai’s plans to deliver two speeches and meet with McCarthy, who suggested he could repeat Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan.
countermeasures
The response from Beijing, which sees Tsai’s trip as part of a growing effort by Taiwan to assert its independence, has already been upsetting, with particular fury reserved for the McCarthy meeting.
During a press conference on Wednesday, Zhu Fenglian, a spokesman for China’s State Council Taiwan Affairs Office, threatened “countermeasures” if Tsai meets with McCarthy.
“If you have contact with US House Speaker McCarthy, it will be another provocation that seriously violates the ‘One China’ principle, harms China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and destroys peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait,” Zhu said before Tsai’s departure.
“We strongly oppose this and will take determined countermeasures.”
But US officials say the “transit,” Tsai’s seventh time in the United States as Taiwan’s leader, does not constitute an official visit. Instead, they insist that Taiwan’s leader is visiting privately, saying it is standard practice for the democratic island’s leaders.
Beijing, however, considers Taiwan a rogue province and has threatened to force “meet” with the mainland, saying that US relations with Taiwan violate a 50 year agreement.
Chinese officials also deny that such “transits” are standard.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Mao Ning said on wednesday that the United States was “hollowing out the ‘One China’ principle” and that “past mistakes do not justify any new mistakes”.
“The ones who are creating the problem and provoking are not China, but the United States and the ‘Taiwan independence’ separatists,” Mao said. “We urge the United States to abide by the ‘One China’ principle.”
Mao urged the United States to “seriously honor its leaders’ commitment not to support ‘Taiwan independence’ or ‘Two Chinas’ or ‘One China, One Taiwan,’ stop all forms of official interaction with Taiwan. ” and stop “improving” its relationship with Taiwan.
‘External pressure’
Leaving Taiwan on Wednesday, Tsai vowed not to be swayed.
“I want to tell the whole world that democratic Taiwan will resolutely safeguard the values of freedom and democracy, and continue to be a force for good in the world, continuing a cycle of goodness, strengthening the resilience of democracy in the world.” Said Tsai. saying.
“External pressure,” he added, referring to Beijing’s backlash, would not “obstruct” Taiwan’s engagement with the world.
US officials say Tsai will not meet anyone from the Biden administration for the total six days on US soil.
Senior State Department deputy spokesman Vedant Patel reiterated Wednesday that Tsai’s trip was “consistent with our unofficial nature of relations with Taiwan” and did not alter “our ‘One China’ policy,” which diverges Beijing’s “One China” principle.
“There is no reason to take countermeasures; there is no reason for Beijing to turn this transit, which is consistent with longstanding US policy, into something it is not, or to overreact,” Patel told reporters.
“We oppose any unilateral change to the status quo, from either side. We do not support Taiwan independence and continue to hope that cross-strait differences will be resolved through peaceful means.”
But Patel declined to comment on McCarthy’s plans, saying they were his prerogative as head of a “co-equal branch of government.”
Edited by Malcolm Foster
Discover more from PressNewsAgency
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.