Lai introduced his arrival in New York on Saturday night time in a post on X, the platform prior to now referred to as Twitter.
“Happy to arrive at the #BigApple, icon of liberty, democracy & opportunities,” he wrote, attaching a photograph along Bi-Khim Hsiao, who leads Taiwan’s unofficial embassy within the U.S., and Ingrid Larson, a managing director at America’s de facto embassy in Taiwan. “Looking forward to seeing friends & attending transit programs in #NewYork.”
His first stopover will handiest be about 24 hours. Lai will go away New York City on Sunday to wait the inauguration of Paraguay’s new president, Santiago Peña Palacios. Paraguay is considered one of Taiwan’s 13 closing diplomatic allies, and attending the development provides Lai — who’s leading the polls within the race to be triumphant outgoing President Tsai Ing-wen in January — a possibility to sing their own praises his overseas coverage chops and connect to supporters.
Lai gets every other probability to do this when he transits overnight in San Francisco on Aug. 15 on his as far back as Taiwan.
In Saturday remarks earlier than leaving Taiwan, Lai in short discussed creating a transit prevent in New York however talked extensively about enticing with other leaders.
“On this trip, I will have confident exchanges with world leaders and speak with representatives from like-minded countries,” Lai mentioned. “I will show the international community that Taiwan is committed to values of freedom, democracy, and human rights, is an active participant in global affairs and has made many efforts to help maintain peace in the Indo-Pacific region.”
The Taiwanese vice chairman’s arrival in South America will happen amid experiences that China has paid shops in Paraguay to unfold adverse experiences concerning the seek advice from, in step with a release from Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemning the motion.
During a prior U.S. transit prevent in January 2022, Lai held video conferences from his Los Angeles lodge with 17 U.S. lawmakers. Beijing spoke back through lodging a “solemn representation” with the U.S. executive that integrated a requirement that the Biden management “stop the erroneous acts of having official exchanges with Taiwan.” Taiwan’s president Tsai Ing-Wen visited the U.S. previous this yr, assembly with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and a number of other different contributors of Congress, which China retaliated towards through carrying out 3 days of army workout routines across the island.
Beijing “should not use as a pretext any transit by Vice President Lai for brazen coercion or other provocative activities [and] should not be a pretext for interference in Taiwan’s election either,” a senior management reputable informed newshounds final month.
Lai’s profile because the main candidate to interchange outgoing Tsai within the self-governing island’s January 2024 elections makes him doubly problematic for Beijing. He has bolstered his pro-Taiwan independence credentials through declaring in January that Taiwan “is already an independent and sovereign nation.”
Lai’s pro-independence rhetoric “is his [electoral] market share. He’s not going to walk away from that,” mentioned Douglas Paal, former unofficial U.S. envoy to the self-governing island on the American Institute in Taiwan from 2002 to 2006.
And eyeing a conceivable election victory, Lai mentioned final month that elected leaders of Taiwan must be welcomed to the White House, a prospect which might constitute a drastic departure to how the U.S. and the island have maintained members of the family since 1979 — in addition to a deep offense to Beijing.
“It’s up to the Chinese how they want to play it,” mentioned Daniel Russel, a former senior Asia hand within the Obama management. “Every serious [Taiwan presidential] candidate in the past has come to the United States for kind of an informal base touch — there is nothing new, radical or different about this.”
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