Beijing ‘irked’ as Taiwan President heads to America

Taipei: Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen left for the United States on Saturday, a trip that will be scrutinised by China, incensed by her congratulatory call to Donald Trump.

While the focus of the nine-day trip is to bolster relations with Taiwan’s Central American allies, Ms Ing-wen’s US stopovers will be closely watched amid speculation that she may make contact with the President-elect and his team.

She is to transit in Houston this weekend and return to Taipei via San Francisco next weekend.

The call with Mr Trump in December after he won the presidency upended decades of diplomatic precedent, in which Washington has effectively ignored Taipei in favour of Beijing, which considers Taiwan a breakaway province to be brought back within its fold.

Since then, China has stepped up military drills near Taiwan, speculating that its sole aircraft carrier may pass through the Taiwan Strait during or shortly after Ms Ing-wen’s trip.

The drills are seen as a show of strength by Beijing as its ties with the self-ruled island and the US deteriorate. “What China cares most about is whether Ms Ing-wen and Mr Trump will meet,” said political analyst Liao Da-chi.

“These are all warning signals to see how Taiwan will respond, as well as testing waters with the US,” added Mr Da-chi, a professor at the National Sun Yat-sen University.

Beijing has asked Washington to bar Ms Ing-wen from flying through the United States’ airspace.

“A transit is a transit,” the Taiwanese leader told reporters last week, when asked if she would be meeting anyone from Mr Trump’s administration.

The US President-elect himself appeared to have ruled out meeting Ms Ing-wn this trip, saying it is “a little bit inappropriate” to meet anybody until he takes office January 20.