Hong Kong (CNN) Taiwan has every right to “connect with the world,” its President Tsai Ing-wen declared Wednesday as she embarked on a diplomatic mission to Central America that will include transit to the United States — and this has already been condemned by China.
Tsai departed Taiwan on Wednesday for a 10-day trip that will include stopovers in New York City and Los Angeles, in addition to official visits to Guatemala and Belize.
“External pressure will not stop our determination to move towards international society,” Tsai told reporters before the launch. “We are calm, confident, uncompromising and unprovocative.”
The trip drew increased attention after it was reported that Tsai would meet US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy during one of her unofficial stops in the US.
Taiwan has yet to confirm such a meeting.
McCarthy said this month he would meet Tsai while she’s in the US, although he didn’t give a date.
China hit out at the trip ahead of Tsai’s departure and vowed on Wednesday to “strongly fight back” should Tsai hit McCarthy – a move Beijing would see as a violation of its sovereignty.
It also targeted the US when Tsai was away, with the State Department urging Washington to “refrain from dangerous acts that underscore the political basis of relations between the two countries.”
“It is not the Chinese side that is overreacting, but the US side that remains committed to supporting the separatist forces of Taiwan independence,” said spokesman Mao Ning, using a collective term Beijing uses to describe Taipei to discredit.
China’s ruling Communist Party claims the island’s self-governing democracy as its own, though it has never controlled it, and has not ruled out using force to one day take Taiwan.
Washington believes there is “absolutely no reason” for Beijing to use Tsai’s transit as an excuse to conduct “aggressive or coercive activities” against Taiwan, a senior US administration official told reporters, although some US officials have private concerns about it how Beijing might respond.
Beijing fired several rockets and launched extensive military patrols around the island after a visit by then-US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi last August — the first visit by an MP of her rank in 25 years.
The visit also severely strained bilateral U.S.-China relations, even though lawmakers make their itineraries and decisions about foreign activities independently of the U.S. executive branch.
Tight ties
Tsai’s trip also comes at a sensitive time in already strained US-China relations.
An expected visit by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to Beijing last month – part of a bid by both sides to stabilize deteriorating relations – was scrapped after a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon was shot down over the US.
U.S. officials have communicated with Chinese officials in Washington and Beijing multiple times in recent weeks to provide them with information on Taiwan’s president’s past U.S. transits, a senior administration official told reporters last week.
The US official said China’s responses indicated it has no plans to treat this transit as they have done in the past.
“In all previous transits, President Tsai has met with members of Congress and state and local officials. She made public appearances and participated in dating with the Taiwanese diaspora,” the official said. “As in previous years, President Tsai will be welcomed in Taiwan by the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the American Institute (AIT) during this transit.”
AIT is the organization that maintains unofficial US ties with Taiwan. According to US officials, Tsai has crossed the US six times while she was president.
Due to the US’s unofficial relationship with Taiwan, Tsai’s stay in the US will not be described as an official visit to keep the US on longstanding “one China” policy.
As part of the “One China” policy, the US recognizes China’s position that Taiwan is part of China, but has never officially recognized Beijing’s claim to the island of 23 million people.
On Wednesday, a spokesman for China’s Bureau of Taiwan Affairs Zhu Fenglian accused Taiwanese authorities of using such visits to “seek support from anti-Chinese forces in the United States.”
A meeting between Tsai and McCarthy would also be “another provocation” that “undermines cross-strait peace and stability.”
“We firmly oppose this and will take measures to resolutely retaliate,” Zhu said.
diplomatic trip
After her layover in New York City, Tsai is scheduled to visit Guatemala on April 1st and Belize on April 3rd. She will pass through Los Angeles before returning to Taiwan on April 7, according to Taiwan’s presidential office.
Tsai’s trip also comes as the island democracy seeks to strengthen its diplomatic partnerships, which have dwindled in number in recent years.
These received another blow on Saturday when Honduras formally established diplomatic ties with China and severed them with Taiwan. Beijing does not maintain diplomatic relations with countries that recognize Taipei.
Only 13 countries now have official ties with Taiwan – with several countries in Central America and the Pacific switching recognition to China in recent years.
However, Taiwan maintains de facto but unofficial diplomatic relations with many Western nations, including the United States.
During her trip to Taipei last year, California Democrat Pelosi said the visit was intended to “make absolutely clear” that the US would “not give up” on the Democratic-ruled island.
Under leader Xi Jinping, China has ramped up military, diplomatic and economic pressures on the island, including enticing Taipei’s allies to switch allegiances.
This pressure is expected to increase in the coming months ahead of Taiwan’s next presidential election in January.
Tsai’s diplomatic trip also coincides with the first visit to the mainland by a current or former Taiwan leader since the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949.
Former President Ma Ying-jeou, who served as Taiwan’s president between 2008 and 2016, is touring mainland China on what is ostensibly a private trip, but it comes at a time of rising tensions over Taiwan’s future.
During his tenure as head of state, Ma promoted stronger economic ties with China but kept Beijing’s urge for reunification in check.
In comments in the eastern city of Nanjing at the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum on Tuesday, Ma said people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait are “ethnic Chinese” and share the same ancestors.
journalist Gladys Tsai in Taipei; CNN’s Kylie Atwood and Jennifer Hansler in Washington; and Martha Zhou in Beijing contributed reporting. Earlier coverage by Eric Cheung in Taipei.