TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Five Congress members sent a letter to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Nov. 22 calling on him and President Joe Biden to meet with President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) during his coming tour of South Pacific allies.
The Presidential Office announced that Lai on his first overseas trip as president will visit the Marshall Islands, Tuvalu, and Palau from Nov. 30 to Dec. 6. Six sources cited by Reuters said Lai is planning to make a stopover in Hawaii and possibly Guam during the trip, but Deputy Foreign Minister Tien Chung-kwang (田中光) declined to comment on the report.
Representative Tom Tiffany led four other members of Congress in writing a letter to Blinken calling on him to refrain from imposing any limits on Lai's interaction with the media and his ability to conduct public engagements. Tiffany noted that Beijing has already demanded that the Biden administration bar Lai's entry into the US.
Tiffany noted Taiwan has never been ruled by the Chinese Communist Party nor has the US recognized the CCP's territorial claims over the country. He added, “These baseless claims, along with China's demands to block Mr. Lai's visit, should be forcefully and publicly rejected.”
The representative stressed that laws governing US-Taiwan ties such as the Taiwan Relations Act have no such limits on visits by high-ranking Taiwanese officials. On the contrary, Tiffany said statutes dictate that Taiwan's president “shall be admitted” to the US for talks with American officials and mandate the expansion of such high-level visits.
The congressmen called on the State Department to respect these regulations and “welcome Mr. Lai without any preconditions or restrictions.” The letter closed by expressing the hope that Biden will consider meeting with Lai in person during his trip.