The visit of William Lai, vice-president of Taiwan, does not go through China. The small island territory is claimed by Beijing. The U.S. gesture inspired China to take “firm and forceful action.” “China is closely monitoring the development of the situation and will take firm and vigorous measures to safeguard its sovereignty and territorial integrity,” a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said in a statement.
China considers Taiwan to be one of its provinces, which it has yet to successfully reunify with the rest of its territory since the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949. It says it favors “peaceful reunification” with territory, now governed by a democratic system, but it has never renounced the use of military force to achieve this.
China sees with dissatisfaction the rapprochement, in recent years, between the Taiwanese authorities and certain Western countries, in particular the United States, seeing it as a threat to its territorial integrity because these meetings bring a form of legitimacy to the Taiwanese authorities.
“China firmly opposes any form of official contact between the United States and Taiwan and firmly opposes Taiwanese independence-seeking separatists visiting the United States,” the ministry said. Chinese Foreign Affairs.
“The United States and Taiwan, in collusion, allow William Lai to engage in political activities in the United States under the pretext of transit”, which “seriously undermines the sovereignty and territorial integrity of China “, he underlined.
Officially according to Taiwan, William Lai simply needs to “transit” through the United States – like Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen in early April – before traveling to Paraguay to witness the inauguration of new President Santiago Peña.
Paraguay is one of the last countries to officially recognize Taipei. William Lai posted a photo of himself on X (new name for Twitter) on Sunday, saying he had arrived in New York.
Mr. Lai is a candidate to succeed current President Tsai Ing-wen. Both from a militant party traditionally for independence, they are as such regularly vilified by Beijing. The Chinese army had organized three-day maneuvers around the island in April in response to a meeting in the United States between the speaker of the American House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, and Ms. Tsai.
