President Tsai returns to Taiwan after 10-day overseas trip
ROC Central News Agency
04/07/2023 10:28 PM
Taipei, April 7 (CNA) President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) returned to Taiwan on Friday night, after a 10-day overseas trip with stops in Taiwan's diplomatic allies Guatemala and Belize, as well as New York and California in the United States.
Speaking to reporters shortly after touching down at Taoyuan International Airport, Tsai said her trip had delivered results as the leaders of the two Central American allies reaffirmed their support for Taiwan.
At the same time, American lawmakers across party lines expressed their solidarity with Taiwan, she said, referring to the representatives and senators she met while in the U.S.
Tsai's trip from March 29 to April 7 -- her first overseas trip since COVID-19 began spreading across the world in early 2020 -- culminated on April 5 U.S. time with a meeting with U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in Simi Valley.
McCarthy thus became the most senior U.S. elected official to have met with a president of the Republic of China (ROC), Taiwan's official name, on American soil since the U.S. severed formal diplomatic relations with the ROC in 1979.
Tsai later told the press corps in Los Angeles that face-to-face communications with the "American side" "will contribute to cross-Taiwan Strait stability and regional peace."
Apart from visiting Los Angeles from April 4-6 (local time) after a two-day stay in Belize, Tsai also stopped in New York on March 30-31 before traveling to Guatemala.
She met with Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei during her stop in Guatemala from March 31 to April 2 and Belizean Prime Minister John Briceño while in Belize from April 2-4 to reaffirm bilateral ties with their countries.
The trip came just days after Honduras broke formal diplomatic relations with the ROC on March 26 to recognize the People's Republic of China.
It became the fourth Central American ally to be lured away by China and sever ties since Tsai took power in 2016, after Panama in 2017, El Salvador in 2018 and Nicaragua in 2021.
Upon her return to Taiwan, Tsai remained undaunted.
"In the face of pressure and intimidation, the people of Taiwan will only become more united," she said.
Taiwanese will not bow to pressure, nor will they stop fostering exchanges with the world when facing obstacles, she said.
During her stay in New York, she met with Hakeem Jeffries, the top Democrat in the House of Representatives and had a breakfast session with Republican Senators Dan Sullivan, Joni Ernst and Democratic Senator Mark Kelly, according to Presidential Office Deputy Secretary-General Xavier Chang (張惇涵).
The president also urged China, which had said it would conduct "on-site inspections" of all cargo and construction support vessels operating in parts of the Taiwan Strait in the wake of the Tsai-McCarthy meeting, to exhibit "self-restraint" and "not to overreact."
Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense also confirmed on Thursday that a Chinese aircraft carrier appeared in waters about 200 nautical miles east of Taiwan for what appeared to be a long-range training exercise.
Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday urged Beijing not to use the "transits" by Tsai "as an excuse to take any actions to ratchet up tensions, to further push at changing the status quo" in cross-Strait relations.
Despite a lack of diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Taiwan, Washington has over the years allowed Taiwanese presidents to make "transit stops" in the U.S. during their trips to Latin American or Caribbean nations.
Blinken added that the meetings and engagements Tsai has had while transiting through the U.S. are "very much in line with precedent."
(By Teng Pei-ju)
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