Trump weighs whether to allow Taiwan leader's transit through US

Straits Times

5 days ago

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Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te was planning to stop in New York on Aug 4 and then Dallas 10 days later.
WASHINGTON – The Trump administration is debating whether to allow a planned US stopover by Taiwan's leader next week as concerns mount that it could derail trade talks with China and a potential summit with President Xi Jinping, according to people familiar with the matter.
Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te was planning to stop in New York on Aug 4 and then Dallas 10 days later as part of a trip to diplomatic allies Paraguay, Guatemala and Belize, Bloomberg reported earlier in July.
Planning for the trip was thrown into flux late last week when Taiwanese officials couldn't get their US counterparts to give the green light, the people said.
The hesitation over allowing Mr Lai's trip has unnerved some officials in the US as well as in Taipei, who fear President Donald Trump may concede too much to China as he seeks a meeting with Mr Xi, the people said.
Bloomberg reported earlier that Trump's administration was reaching out to CEOs to accompany him on a possible trip to Beijing later in 2025.
The White House and US State Department didn't reply to requests for comment made outside normal working hours.
'Any such claims are pure speculation, based on incorrect information,' said Mr Lii Wen, a spokesman of the Presidential Office in Taipei. 'The Presidential Office announces relevant plans publicly after all arrangements have been confirmed.'
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The US has delayed such trips in the past, and could yet suggest an alternative timeframe and layover locations.
In 2024, Mr Lai pushed back a planned transit through Hawaii and Guam by several months following a Biden administration request to wait until after the US election, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Mr Lai's planned visit comes at a delicate diplomatic moment.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice-Premier He Lifeng on July 28 are
convening their trade teams in Stockholm to advance talks for a deal with ramifications for global markets.
An extension of a trade truce reached between both sides is expected and would help pave the way for a Trump-Xi meeting.
China, which views the democratically governed island as its own, has branded Mr Lai a 'separatist' and 'parasite', views Taiwan as the most sensitive issue in relations with other countries.
It has increasingly opposed US interactions with Taiwanese leaders, in particular by staging large-scale military exercises surrounding the island following former US House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taipei in 2022.
Any hesitation from Mr Trump over transits by Taiwan's president will fan concerns that Washington's position on the self-ruled democracy, which Beijing considers a renegade province, could become a trade war bargaining chip.
In an abrupt policy reversal, Mr Trump already put on the negotiating table some tech curbs imposed on China over national security concerns.
While the US doesn't have official ties with Taiwan, it's legally obliged to provide weapons for the island's self-defence and is Taiwan's top supplier of military equipment.
Embattled leader
Mr Lai, who won 2024's presidential election with the lowest winning percentage since 2000, also risks looking weak at home and abroad.
Last weekend, a
failed attempt to unseat lawmakers handed the opposition more ammunition for its agenda, which includes forging closer ties with Beijing.
Adding to the uncertainty, Taiwan's trade officials are currently in Washington for talks aimed at clinching a deal to avert a threatened 32 per cent tariff.
All of Taiwan's sitting presidents since the 1990s have travelled to the US on stop overs en route to other destinations.
While most visits passed without triggering heightened tensions, a trip by then-leader Lee Teng-hui to speak at Cornell University in 1995 sparked the so-called Third Strait Crisis, with China firing missiles into waters near the main island of Taiwan.
Stopover requests, on occasion, have been used as a way for US leaders to signal displeasure with Taiwan's policy.
The most prominent example of that came in 2006, when then-US President George W. Bush scuttled Mr Chen Shui-bian's request to transit to Paraguay via either New York or San Francisco.
That snub was taken as a sign his unofficial relationship with Washington had suffered a serious blow, after Mr Chen upset the Bush administration with a series of pro-independence policies that risked provoking China.
Mr Lai's New York and Dallas stops would mark his first to continental US soil since he became president in 2024 and Mr Trump took power in January.
His transits in Hawaii and Guam last December were followed by what Taipei described as China's largest naval deployment in years along the first island chain, which also includes Japan and the Philippines.
US State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce told reporters earlier in July that
layovers by Taiwanese presidents are routine .
'Transits of the United States by high-level Taiwan officials, including presidents, are in line with past practice and fully consistent with our longstanding policy,' she said. BLOOMBERG