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Epoch Times
4 hours ago
- Politics
- Epoch Times
Taiwan Says President Has ‘No Plans' to Travel After Reports Claimed US Blocked Stopover
Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te has no plans to travel overseas at the moment because of a recent typhoon, his office said, dismissing reports that he canceled a trip to Latin America due to the U.S. government allegedly blocking a transit stop in New York. 'In consideration of the ongoing rehabilitation efforts in southern Taiwan following a recent typhoon and regional developments including the United States' tariffs, the president currently has no plans to go on an overseas visit,' Presidential Office spokesperson Karen Kuo said on July 28, according to Taiwanese news outlet Focus Taiwan.
Japan Times
14 hours ago
- Business
- Japan Times
Taiwan president's bad week hangs on U.S. trade deal outcome
Taiwanese leader Lai Ching-te suffered a string of high-profile political setbacks over the past week, wounding his presidency at home and abroad. With a U.S. tariff deadline looming, things could get worse. Lai's ability to forge ahead with his domestic agenda was handed a blow Saturday, when an unprecedented recall vote against opposition lawmakers ended in a landslide defeat. Shortly after, it emerged Trump administration officials had rebuffed his request to pass through U.S. soil next month, over fears it could jeopardize trade talks with China. Adding to the turmoil, Taiwan officials are still racing against a Friday deadline to avert a 32% tariff from the U.S. Failure to secure a tariff on par with neighbors such as Japan could cast further doubt over Lai's relationship with Taipei's top military backer. So far, Trump's team has only offered Taiwan a "best rate tariff' without specifying the number, according to a person familiar with the talks, who added Taiwanese officials assume that's around the 15% tariff Japan was given. The U.S. is also demanding more investment, after Tokyo's offer of a $550 billion fund, the person added. The benchmark Taiex Index and shares in chip giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. were down 0.9% on Tuesday, as traders digested the lack of a trade announcement nearly a week after the island's negotiators arrived in Washington. A soldier speaks to Lai in Hsinchu, Taiwan, on July 10. Lai's domestic agenda has focused on defense, with an aim of raising military spending to over 3% of gross domestic product. | REUTERS The Presidential Office in Taiwan didn't reply to a request for comment. Lai's office has sought to minimize the political damage in recent days, saying all parties should accept the recall results and that there was no confirmation of any overseas travel. "Considering the ongoing post-disaster recovery efforts in southern Taiwan and the reciprocal tariff negotiations with the United States, the President has no plans for overseas visits in the near future,' a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said at a briefing on Tuesday. "There's been no postponement, cancellation, or any situation in which the U.S. refused a transit.' Lai now faces a difficult path ahead in the remainder of his four-year term. After nearly a decade in power, his ruling Democratic Progressive Party has an uphill battle passing legislation for further increases to defense spending as military aggression from Beijing mounts. Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump is focused on striking a deal with China, raising questions about what terms he'll agree to with Chinese President Xi Jinping. "The biggest issue for Lai now is China's trade talks with the U.S., and whether the Trump administration makes concessions to Beijing that put Taiwan's interests on the line,' said Ja Ian Chong, associate professor of political science at the National University of Singapore. "That would create far greater challenges for Lai and his administration.' China is leveraging its supply-chain dominance over rare earth magnets needed for electric vehicles and weapons to pressure Washington into compromises. Already, that's resulted in an abrupt U-turn on some tech curbs imposed on Beijing for national security. Supporters of Taiwan's main opposition party, Kuomintang, participate in a rally against a recall election in front of the Presidential Office in Taipei on Friday. | AFP-JIJI Lai is also grappling with the threat of a proposed tariff on semiconductors after Trump discussed putting levies on specific sectors. Given Taiwan's stranglehold over chip production, the island can likely pass on those costs to U.S. customers, according to Ma Tieying, senior economist at DBS Bank. Demands to relocate more of its production to U.S. shores could have greater impact in the longer term, weakening Taiwan's "silicon shield' — the concept that the world's reliance on the island's chips helps protect it against military conflict. Since coming to power last year with the lowest winning percentage since 2000, Lai has hardened Taiwan's stance against Beijing and been outspoken about the island's status. China, which considers the self-run democracy its own territory, has accused Lai of "wantonly spreading separatist remarks,' further inflaming tensions. "Taiwan is a province of China. There's no president in the Taiwan region,' Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said at at regular briefing in Beijing on Tuesday, when asked about Lai's overseas travel plans. "The U.S. needs to jointly work with us to promote the sound, steady and sustainable development of China-U.S. ties,' he added. Lai's domestic agenda has focused on defense, pushing to raise military spending to over 3% of gross domestic product — a level that would placate Trump's demands but likely anger Beijing. With the opposition boosted by the recall failure, his budget could be harder to realize. Going forward, Lai may not be able to count on the U.S. for support, said Alexander Huang, director of Taiwanese opposition party Kuomintang's International Affairs Department, noting that until Trump and Xi have hashed out their differences, the White House isn't likely to have a firm Taiwan policy. A woman reacts as she awaits the results of the recall election in Taipei on Saturday. The recall vote against opposition lawmakers ended in a landslide defeat for Lai's Democratic Progressive Party. | AFP-JIJI "The priority for the U.S. and China is how to set the frame to continue their strategic competition, and Taiwan is not a major factor,' he said. Huang suggested Lai should collaborate with the opposition on nominating judges for Taiwan's highest court, where a political standoff has left it without enough justices to function. Even before the recent challenges, public approval for Lai had dropped to 32% — the lowest since he assumed office — in the most recent poll by local media outlet TVBS in May. Nearly half of residents believed Taiwan was heading in the wrong direction. Lai will have a tougher time rallying consensus within his party, as new power centers have emerged from the recall campaign, according to Wen-ti Sung, a non-resident fellow at the Atlantic Council's Global China Hub. That's only going to add to Lai's troubles, as he tries to stay on side with Taipei's most-important partner. "Washington may be again relegating Taiwan to the back burner and framing Taiwan as a mere bargaining chip in service of the U.S.' China policy ends,' Sung said. "If true, it would be a dangerous sign.'
South China Morning Post
a day ago
- Business
- South China Morning Post
No US stopover for Taiwanese leader could ease path to Xi-Trump meeting this year
Taiwanese leader William Lai Ching-te has no immediate plans for overseas travel, his office said on Monday, following reports that his proposed stopover in the United States was declined by the Donald Trump administration. Citing people familiar with the decision, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday that Washington told Lai he could not stop in New York on the way to South America, where he was earlier reported to be planning to visit Paraguay, Guatemala and Belize. The decision is expected to remove significant obstacles to a potential leaders' meeting between Beijing and Washington. Taiwanese Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo attributed the decision not to travel to the ongoing rehabilitation efforts in southern Taiwan following a recent typhoon, regional developments, and the United States' tariffs. The South China Morning Post reported earlier this month that Lai was planning a US 'stopover' in August that could take him to New York and Texas en route to South America, a move that was bound to anger Beijing. The reported cancellation of Lai's planned US transit represents another significant setback for his Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), following its failure on the weekend to unseat 24 lawmakers from the main opposition Kuomintang in recall votes. The Post has approached the US State Department for comment.
ABC News
a day ago
- Business
- ABC News
Taiwan to push back US stopover as US–China trade talks continue, sources say
Taiwan's President Lai Ching-te is set to delay a diplomatically sensitive trip his team had floated to the Trump administration for August that would have included stops in the United States, according to multiple people familiar with the matter. Mr Lai is yet to visit the US since President Donald Trump took office, but such a trip was bound to infuriate Beijing at a time when the US president was trying to negotiate a deal on trade with China, according to Reuters. China claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, and regularly denounces any shows of support for Taipei from Washington. Taiwan's government rejects Beijing's sovereignty claims and says only the island's people can decide their future The trip, which would have included stopping in New York and Dallas on the way to and from Latin America, was never formally confirmed but had been discussed with the governments involved, according to a person familiar with the matter. Mr Lai was set to delay the trip until at least later this year for a handful of reasons, including the need to organise his government's response to extreme weather in Taiwan, one of the sources told Reuters. Two sources spoken to by Reuters also pinned the delay on the ongoing US tariff talks with Taipei and Beijing, respectively. The Financial Times reported that, according to multiple sources, the US told Mr Lai he could not visit New York on the way, and that was the reason the trip was delayed. China faces an August 12 deadline to reach a durable tariff agreement with the Trump administration, after weeks of escalating tit-for-tat tariffs and a blockade on rare earth minerals. Without an agreement, global supply chains could face renewed turmoil from US duties snapping back to triple-digit levels, which would amount to a bilateral trade embargo. The White House and China's embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Taiwan's delayed trip to the US, while Taiwan's Presidential Office was not immediately available for comment late on Monday night. "There's no such thing as cancelling the trip," said a person with direct knowledge of the matter, who said stopovers were likely to include Texas and another city in the US mainland. "In fact, further arrangements for the trip will be made later this year." Earlier on Monday, Taiwan's Presidential Office spokesperson Karen Kuo said once the president's overseas visit itinerary was finalised, it would be announced to the public in a timely manner. "However, considering the recent typhoon disaster recovery efforts in southern Taiwan, the US–Taiwan reciprocal tariff measures and regional developments, the president currently has no plans for overseas visits in the near future," Ms Kuo said. The decision comes as Mr Trump has tried to lower tensions with Chinese President Xi Jinping and potentially have a summit in Asia with him this autumn. China's Foreign Ministry has previously condemned what it called "sneaky visits" to the US by Taiwanese leaders under any pretext. They said the US must understand how sensitive the Taiwan issue was and act with the utmost caution. Yesterday, top US and Chinese economic officials huddled in Stockholm, Sweden for more than 5 hours to resolve longstanding economic disputes and extend a truce by three months. Negotiators from both sides were seen exiting the office around 8pm, local time, and did not stop to speak with reporters. Tariff discussions between the US and China are expected to resume today. US trade representative Jamieson Greer said he did not expect an "enormous breakthrough" today. "What I expect is continued monitoring and checking in on the implementation of our agreement thus far, making sure that key critical minerals are flowing between the parties and setting the groundwork for enhanced trade and balanced trade going forward," he told CNBC. The Stockholm talks follow Mr Trump's biggest trade deal yet with the European Union, for a 15 per cent tariff on most EU goods exports to the United States. Trade analysts said another 90-day extension of a tariff and export control truce struck in mid-May between China and the United States was likely, and would facilitate a potential meeting between both leaders in late October or early November. So far, the talks have not delved into broader economic issues. Previous trade talks in Geneva and London focused on bringing US and Chinese retaliatory tariffs down from triple-digit levels and restoring the flow of rare earth minerals halted by China, and the US's stoppage of goods including Nvidia's advanced chips. They included US complaints that China's state-led, export-driven model was flooding world markets with cheap goods, and Beijing's complaints that US national security export controls on tech goods sought to stunt Chinese growth. "Geneva and London were really just about trying to get the relationship back on track so that they could, at some point, actually negotiate about the issues which animate the disagreement between the countries in the first place," said Scott Kennedy, a China economics expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. Analysts say the US-China negotiations are far more complex than those with other Asian countries and will require more time. China's grip on the global market for rare earth minerals and magnets, used in everything from military hardware to car windshield wiper motors, has proved to be an effective leverage point on US industries. Reuters
Japan Times
a day ago
- Business
- Japan Times
Taiwan's Lai calls off trip with U.S. transit as Trump seeks Xi summit
Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te has called off an overseas trip planned for next week after the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump failed to greenlight his stopover in the U.S. amid concerns it could derail trade talks with China. Taiwan's leader isn't planning any overseas travel in the near future, given the need for typhoon recovery work in southern Taiwan and tariff negotiations with the U.S., the Presidential Office in Taipei said in a statement late Monday. Lai had intended 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. Planning for that trip was thrown into flux late last week when Taiwanese officials couldn't get their U.S. counterparts to give the go-ahead, according to people familiar with the matter. The U.S. had mounting concerns Lai's visit could disrupt trade negotiations with China and a potential summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, the people said. The hesitation over Lai's trip unnerved some officials in the U.S., as well as in Taipei, who fear Trump may concede too much to China as he seeks a meeting with Xi, according to the people. Trump's team has been reportedly reaching out to CEOs to join him on a possible trip to Beijing this year. While Lai's trip was never formally announced, officials in Paraguay and Guatemala had been expecting him to arrive next month, but no longer do so, according to people familiar with the preparations for his visit. Trump officials denied Lai permission to transit through New York after China raised objections with Washington about the visit, the Financial Times reported, citing people familiar with the decision. It was unclear whether he was also blocked from stopping over in Dallas, the newspaper added. The rebuke will fan concerns that Washington's position on the self-ruled democracy, which Beijing considers a part of its territory, is becoming a trade war bargaining chip. In an abrupt policy reversal, Trump already put on the negotiating table some tech curbs imposed on China over national security concerns. Lai poses for photos with Taiwanese National Security Council Secretary-General Joseph Wu (second from left), Taiwanese Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (fourth from left), and army officers in front of a U.S.-made M1A2T Abrams tank during a live-fire shooting session for Taiwan's first batch of the advanced tank on July 10. | AFP-JIJI "Trump's decision to deny permission for President Lai to visit New York sends a dangerous signal: that the United States can be bullied by Beijing into silence on Taiwan,' said former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whose 2022 visit to Taipei sparked uproar. "This is a victory for Xi,' she wrote on social media platform X. "Let us hope it is not indicative of a dangerous change in U.S. policy.' The White House didn't reply to a request for comment. A State Department official said transits by high-level Taiwanese officials, including presidents, were fully consistent with longstanding U.S. policy and practice, which hasn't changed. The U.S. could yet suggest an alternative time frame and layover locations. Last year, the Taiwanese president pushed back a planned transit through Hawaii and Guam by several months following a request from the administration of then-President Joe Biden to wait until after the U.S. election, according to a person familiar with the matter. Lai is planning to go ahead with his trip later this year, according to one person familiar with the plans. The Taiwanese president's planned visit came at a delicate diplomatic moment. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng on Monday met in Stockholm for talks aimed at advancing a trade deal with ramifications for global markets. An extension of a tariff truce reached between both sides is expected and would help pave the way for a Trump-Xi meeting. China, which has branded Lai a "separatist' and "parasite,' views Taiwan as the most sensitive issue in relations with other countries. It has increasingly opposed U.S. interactions with Taiwanese leaders, often by staging large-scale military exercises surrounding the island, following Pelosi's trip to Taipei. Linking Taiwan to trade with China "sends a dangerous message to Beijing,' said Laura Rosenberger, a former U.S. diplomat who also chaired the American Institute in Taiwan until this year. "At a time when Beijing is engaging in increasingly coercive behavior toward Taipei, the U.S. needs to be sending a clear message of commitment to longstanding precedents, not allowing Beijing to once again move the goalposts,' she added. Supporters of Taiwan's main opposition party, Kuomintang, participate in a rally against a recall election in front of the Presidential Office in Taipei on Friday. | AFP-JIJI Lai, who won last year's presidential election with the lowest winning percentage since 2000, now 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% tariff. All of Taiwan's sitting presidents since the 1990s have traveled to the U.S. on stopovers en route to other destinations. While most visits passed without triggering heightened tensions, a trip in 1995 by then-leader Lee Teng-hui to speak at Cornell University sparked what's referred to as the 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 U.S. leaders to signal displeasure with Taiwan's policy. The most prominent example of that came in 2006, when then-U.S. President George W. Bush scuttled then-Taiwanese President 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 Chen upset the Bush administration with a series of pro-independence policies that risked provoking China. Lai's New York and Dallas stops would have been his first to continental U.S. soil since he became president last year and 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.
