Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen will visit Central American allies in late March and early April. Taiwan’s Deputy Defense Minister Bai Honghui said on Wednesday (March 22) that the Ministry of National Defense has formulated contingency plans for any actions that China may take during the president’s visit.
Tsai Ing-wen will visit Central American friendly countries Guatemala and Belize from March 29 to April 7, passing through New York and Los Angeles on the way, and is expected to meet with the Speaker of the US House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy (Kevin McCarthy) in California. But Taiwan’s presidential office has yet to confirm the highly sensitive trip.
In August last year, former Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi (Nancy Pelosi) visited Taiwan, which aroused great dissatisfaction in Beijing and launched a “military exercise around the island” against Taiwan, and tensions in the Taiwan Strait rose sharply.
Regarding the possible meeting between Tsai Ing-wen and McCarthy on Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin stated that China firmly opposes any form of official exchanges between the United States and Taiwan, firmly opposes leaders of the Taiwan authorities fleeing the United States under any name and for any reason, and firmly opposes the United States violated the one-China principle China has lodged stern representations with the US regarding any form of contact with the Taiwan authorities. “The leader of the Taiwan authorities’ ‘transit’ is false, and it is true to seek a ‘breakthrough’ and promote ‘Taiwan independence’,” Wang Wenbin said.
Taiwan’s Vice Minister of National Defense Bai Honghui was asked whether China will have more military exercises when Tsai Ing-wen visits abroad. He said Taiwan’s military was prepared for that, but declined to give details.
“The Department of Defense knows what the Chinese Communist Party has done in the past and assumes the worst. During the president’s foreign visit, the Department of Defense has contingency plans for all actions by China,” Bai Honghui said.
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby (John Kirby) said that Tsai Ing-wen’s stopover in the United States is just a “routine matter” and not an “official visit”, which is in line with long-term US policy and China has no reason to overreact.