Taiwanese leader William Lai Ching-te is planning a US “stopover” trip in August that could take him to New York and Texas en route to South America, sources said, a move that is bound to anger Beijing.
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On Monday, Paraguayan President Santiago Pena confirmed that Lai would visit his country next month. Paraguay is the only country in South America and one of only 12 worldwide to recognise the self-governing island, down from 22 a decade ago.
Analysts said Lai might add Guatemala and Belize, two of the other larger countries in the region, to his itinerary. Taiwanese Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung is currently in Paraguay celebrating the 68th anniversary of diplomatic relations with a business delegation, seen as a preparatory step for the presidential visit.
Two people who declined to speak publicly said they believed the choice of a New York stop was driven by its status as a global financial capital – without the political symbolism of visiting Washington that would hugely anger Beijing – while Houston had a large Taiwanese audience and business community.
Analysts say one factor that could derail the stopover would be relatively better US-China ties, which could prompt the US president to cancel Lai’s visit in order to avoid jeopardising a summit between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
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