Written by Gerrit van der Wees.
Image credit: 04.06 「民主夥伴共榮之旅」總統出席主流暨僑界人士晚宴 by 總統府/ Flickr, license: CC BY 2.0.
From late March through early April 2023, Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen made her seventh foreign trip since becoming President in May 2016. The destinations were the Central American countries Guatemala and Belize, with stopovers in New York (on the way out) and Los Angeles (on the way back). The 10-day trip was her first foreign travel after Covid-19 made it sheer impossible to make such trips during the period 2020 – 2022.
This trip became headline news because the CCP government in Beijing voiced major objections, particularly against a planned meeting with US House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy in Los Angeles. The objections are a continuation of the protests by Beijing against the August 2022 visit to Taiwan by McCarthy’s Democratic predecessor, Nancy Pelosi.
The US Department of State attempted to cool the temperature by imploring Beijing not to overreact to President Tsai’s transits or the McCarthy meeting. Deputy Secretary of East Asian and Pacific Affairs Dan Kritenbrink even held a special press conference for the foreign press on Thursday, March 30 2023, in which he stated: The facts regarding this transit are clear. It is consistent with longstanding US practice. It is consistent with our unofficial relations with Taiwan. And moreover, it is consistent with the US “one China” policy which remains unchanged.
President Tsai’s transit visits to the United States were also eerily mirrored in a dark mirror by a visit to China by her predecessor, former President Ma Ying-jeou. Ma’s visit was ostensibly for family reasons, to visit the graves of his ancestors. But it was clearly planned to attempt to draw attention away from Tsai and emphasise the Kuomintang’s China-leaning approach as an alternative to Tsai’s reliance on the US as the safeguard for Taiwan’s security. It certainly was a study in contrasts that will play out in the run-up to Taiwan’s Presidential elections, scheduled for January 2024.
Below we present an overview of how President Tsai’s visits actually went.
New York, Taiwanese American community banquet and Hudson Institute award
In New York, President Tsai started with a banquet with some seven hundred members of the Taiwanese American community, also attended by the newly-appoint chairwoman of the American Institute in Taiwan, Laura Rosenberger, who until recently served as China director at the National Security Council in the White House.
Tsai also met with the top Democrat in the US House of Representatives, Minority leader Hakeem Jeffries and with three prominent senators, Dan Sullivan (R-AK), Joni Ernst (R-IO) and Mark Kelly (D-AZ), discussing issues related to defence and security of Taiwan. All three senators are members of the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee.
In a closed-door evening ceremony on March 31 2023, attended by some three hundred invitees, the Washington-based Hudson Institute presented Tsai with its Global Leadership Award. Previous recipients of the award are inter alia former US President Ronald Reagan, former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, and former US representative to the UN, Nikki Haley.
In accepting the award, President Tsai stated: This award is a tribute to the resilience demonstrated by the people of Taiwan in the face of tremendous challenges. With the courage and persistence of the people of Taiwan, and the support from our US friends, Taiwan began its democratic transition. Eventually, it brought an end to over three decades of martial law. Today, Taiwan stands with like-minded countries in pursuit of peace, prosperity, and the defence of democracy.
The PRC’s escalation of tension is evident, but Taiwan’s response has been measured and composed, demonstrating to the world that we are the responsible cross-Strait stakeholder. The Taiwanese people want peace, not conflict, and history tells us that building strength is the best way to avoid war.
In an OpEd in the Wall Street Journal on April 4 2023, titled “Ukraine is no distraction from Asia”, Hudson Institute President John P. Walters argued that it is important for the US to support the fight for freedom and democracy both in Europe (Ukraine) and in Asia (Taiwan). In the article, he quoted President Tsai Ing-wen as saying that “Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was a wake-up call to us all. . . . Authoritarianism does not cease in its belligerence against democracy.”
President Tsai also found time to socialise with young Taiwanese Americans and visit several Taiwanese-run shops in Brooklyn. She tasted the Taiwanese delicacies the young Taiwanese entrepreneurs running the shops offered.
Guatemala and Belize, strengthening relations.
From New York she and her entourage flew to Guatemala. She met with Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei, discussing strengthening Taiwan’s relations with the remaining allies in Central America after Honduras broke relations with Taiwan just before the trip started.
During the three-day visit, she and her Guatemalan hosts toured the archaeological site of Tikal, one of the most important urban centres of the Mayan civilisation, and a hospital in Chimaltengo, built with a donation from Taiwan. It just opened in February. President Giammattei thanked President Tsai for her government’s economic support and said Guatemala’s friendship with Taiwan was “unchangeable.”
From there, she flew for a one-day visit to the capital of neighbouring Belize, Belmopan. She met with the country’s Prime Minister, Johnny Briceño, who reaffirmed the diplomatic ties with Taiwan. “Together, we can promote our shared values like democracy, the right of the people to self-determination and respect for international law,” he stated in a speech before the country’s National Assembly.
Like in Guatemala and Belize, Taiwan has been supporting agricultural programs and helping to build medical facilities for the impoverished countryside. The two Central American nations represent a significant share of Taiwan’s 13 remaining formal diplomatic allies in the world. However, this number has been further reduced as China has pressured these allies and conducted “dollar diplomacy” to isolate Taiwan.
Los Angeles, Reagan Library speech and McCarthy meeting
From Belize, it was back to the United States: she flew to Los Angeles, where on the morning of Wednesday, April 5 2023, she was met at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who led a bipartisan delegation of eighteen members of the US House of Representatives, including Mike Gallagher (R-WI) and Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL), respectively the chair and ranking member of the newly-established “Select Committee on China.”
This was the meeting that the PRC had protested so vociferously against, but Tsai and McCarthy did not let themselves be intimidated: they held a closed-door meeting in the morning, discussing a range of issues, and after lunch, made statements to the assembled press, with the following highlights:
Speaker McCarthy stated, “Our bond is stronger than at any time or point in my life,” adding, “America’s support for the people of Taiwan will remain resolute, unwavering and bipartisan.” President Tsai responded that “we are stronger when we are together,” expressing gratitude for the bipartisan backing of Taiwan, which she said reassures the people of the island “that we are not isolated, and we are not alone.”
At the press briefing at the Reagan Library, President Tsai also reiterated Taiwan’s commitment to defend the peaceful status quo, where the people of Taiwan may continue to thrive in a free and open society. She highlighted the belief championed by President Reagan that one must be strong to preserve peace. She concluded that “we are stronger when we are together.”
In the evening of the same day, April 5 2023, President Tsai and her entourage were welcomed at a banquet at the Westin Bonaventura in downtown LA, attended by some seven hundred members of the Southern California Taiwanese-American community. In addition, the event was attended by a number of members of Congress who had not been able to join the daytime meeting at the Reagan Library.
These included California Democrats Brad Sherman, Judy Chu, Ro Khanna, and Republicans Darrell Issa and Michelle Steel. Both Khanna and Steel are also members of the newly established “Select Committee on China.” In their remarks, the members of Congress emphasised that peace across the Taiwan Strait is an essential element in US policy towards the region and that a free and democratic Taiwan needs to be protected from external aggression. They also highlighted stronger trade ties and further enhanced relations with Taiwan as important US policy goals.
On Thursday, April 6 2023, President Tsai left the United States and arrived back in Taiwan on the next day, Friday, April 7 2023, just in time to welcome another US Congress delegation led by House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX). The bipartisan eight-member delegation included the chairperson of the Subcommittee for Asia & Pacific Affairs, Mrs Young Kim (R-CA), as well as her Democratic predecessor, Ami Bera, also of California.
Importance of the trip and its aftermath
For President Tsai, this trip represented, in a sense, the culmination of seven years of hard work to strengthen relations with the United States. It came after a Covid-related hiatus of almost four years amidst rising tension between the United States and China over various issues. So, it was important for her to go through with the plans – particularly the meeting with Speaker McCarthy – and not let the repressive regime in Beijing block the contacts, particularly the US Congress.
In the period leading up to and during the trip, various spokespersons for the Beijing regime issued vociferous threats, such as that they would “resolutely fight back” if a Tsai-McCarthy meeting would go ahead and slamming Washington for allowing Tsai to stopover in the US, warning it could lead to a “serious confrontation” between the two powers. After the Tsai-McCarthy meeting had taken place, the foreign ministry in Beijing condemned the meeting and stated China would take “strong and resolute measures.”
Outside observers wondered if the Chinese reaction would reach the same shrill and hysterical level as in August 2022, when right after Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan, it held large-scale military exercises, launched eleven short-range DF-15 ballistic missiles (some of them flying over Taiwan and landing in predetermined sea-zones), and sending in dozens of military aircraft across the median line in the Taiwan Strait and into Taiwan’s ADIZ zone.
As of the time of this writing, the most significant move was that China announced that its Coast Guard would conduct “safety inspections” on Taiwanese ships in the Taiwan Strait, which is generally considered illegal as these are international waters. But the PRC is increasingly claiming the Strait as well as the South China Sea to be Chinese territorial waters, which would be a major threat to international shipping.
The PLA navy also moved a flotilla led by its brand-new aircraft carrier Shandong through the Bashi Channel, south of Taiwan, into the waters beyond the First Island Chain. Coincidentally, the US aircraft carrier Nimitz and its accompanying ships were also doing manoeuvres in the same general region.
International observers point out that the PRC was initially rather constrained in its reactions as French President Emmanuel Macron and EU President Ursula Von der Leyen were visiting Beijing, and the CCP regime could not afford to create a crisis while these foreign leaders were in Beijing. But as Macron and Von der Leyen wrapped up their visits on Saturday, April 8 2023, the PLA’s Eastern Theatre Command announced three days of military exercises “around Taiwan”.
The Beijing authorities are expected to further ratchet up the pressure in the coming weeks. This started on Saturday, April 8 2023, when the PLA sent 71 fighter aircraft in Taiwan’s direction, 45 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait and into Taiwan’s ADIZ zone. On Sunday, April 9, some 70 aircraft were observed, half of which crossed the median line, while on Monday, 91 aircraft were counted, 54 of which crossed the median line and into Taiwan’s ADIZ zone, a daily record.
But any overreaction will have serious consequences, both in terms of a response from the US – which is now very focused on Taiwan’s safety and security, as well as from Europe, where leaders first and foremost want to bring peace to Ukraine and will be highly critical of any moves by Mr Xi Jinping that will have the opposite effect.
Gerrit van der Wees is a former Dutch diplomat who currently teaches the history of Taiwan at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, and US relations with East Asia at the George Washington University Elliott School for International Affairs in Washington, DC.
This article was published as part of a special issue titled “Tsai’s Stopover in the USA: Wins for Taiwan?”
Taiwan Insight 