Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwan’s president will visit Latin American allies Guatemala and Belize next week while also making stopovers in the United States, the island’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday, as it seeks to shore up relations in Latin America.
Next week, on March 29, Tsai Ing-wen will depart Taiwan for the 10-day trip, stopping in the United States New York and Los Angeles while en route to and from the central American countries, according to the ministry.
Belize and Guatemala are two of just 14 nations that officially acknowledge Taiwan over China, and Tsai’s trip comes after Honduras said earlier this month that it would be swapping recognition with China.
China’s opinion self-ruled, democratic Taiwan is part of its territory, to be recaptured one day and could be by force if necessary. Under its “One China” principle, no nation may hold official diplomatic links with both China and Taiwan.
During Tsai’s trip, President Tsai will meet her Guatemalan counterpart Alejandro Giammattei and Belize’s Prime Minister John Briceno, the foreign ministry said.
Tsai was asked if she would meet US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in Los Angeles, Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Yui said only that her “transit itinerary is being placed properly with the US side”.
McCarthy said earlier this month that he would see Tsai in California, with the US State Department playing down the importance of the occasion in front of China’s protests.
On Tuesday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin reiterated his country’s opposition to Tsai’s meeting with US officials.
We firmly oppose any form of official exchanges between the US and Taiwan. China has made solemn representations to the US in this regard.”
Wang Wenbin old a regular press briefing in China
The United States is one of Taiwan’s key international allies and its biggest arms supplier, despite itself swapping diplomatic recognition to China in 1979.
Last year, in August, a visit by McCarthy’s predecessor Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan withdrew denunciation from China, which led to massive military exercises around the island in response.
Tsai’s trip comes at a crucial time for her country, Taiwan, after Honduran President Xiomara Castro said last week that her country would establish “official relations” with China.
Latin America has been a key diplomatic battleground for China and Taiwan since the two splits in 1949 after a civil war.
Honduras’s movement, which would result in the severing of longstanding official relations with Taiwan, followed negotiations between it and China on creating a hydroelectric dam in the country.
It continues a current movement in the region, with Nicaragua, El Salvador, Panama, the Dominican Republic, and Costa Rica all swapping diplomatic recognition to China in recent years.
