HONOLULU (AP) — Taiwan's president Lai Ching-te arrived Saturday in Hawaii to begin a two-day transit in the U.S. as part of a trip to the South Pacific, his first since assuming office.
The stopover in Hawaii and one planned for the territory of Guam have drawn fierce criticism from Beijing, which claims Taiwan as its own territory and objects to official exchanges between the self-ruled democracy and the U.S., the island's biggest backer and military provider.
There were no high-ranking U.S. or Hawaii state officials to greet Lai at the Honolulu hotel where supporters cheered in Mandarin, some waving Taiwanese flags. He visited Hawaii's leading museum of natural history and Native Hawaiian culture, Bishop Museum. Later, he was expected to attend a banquet with supporters.
Lai is on a weeklong trip to visit the Marshall Islands, Tuvalu and Palau — three diplomatic allies of the self-governed island in the Pacific. Though Taiwan retains strong contacts with dozens of other nations, it has only 12 formal diplomatic allies.
Bishop Museum CEO Dee Jay Mailer presented Lai with a red lei hulu, or feather garland, made by master featherwork artist Kawika Lum-Nelmida. Lai gave Mailer a headdress, made by Paiwan Indigenous people of Taiwan, and neck and shoulder decorative pieces made by Atayal Indigenous people, also of Taiwan.
Lai's visit shows that Taiwan and the United States have a very strong relationship, said Arthur Chen, the president of the Taiwanese Chamber of Commerce of North America. He flew to Hawaii from his home near Dallas to welcome the president to the U.S.
Chen said he understood the U.S. has its own foreign policy but he said Lai should be treated as a head of state during his stay.
Taiwan and the U.S. share common values like a belief in democracy and human rights, Chen said. “So we should help each other,” he said.
Lai didn't make any public remarks at his initial engagements in Hawaii, but spoke before his departure from Taiwan.
“I want to use the values of democracy, peace, and prosperity to continue to expand our cooperation with our allies, to deepen our partnership and let the world see Taiwan not just as a model of democracy, but a vital power in promoting the world's peace and stability, and prosperous development," he said at Taoyuan International Airport.
It is unclear whether Lai will meet with any members of the incoming U.S. administration during his transit.
President-elect Donald Trump said in an interview with Bloomberg in July that Taiwan should pay for its defense. The island has purchased billions of dollars of defense weaponry from the U.S.
Trump evaded answering whether he would defend the island from Chinese military action. On Friday, the U.S. State Department said it approved the sale of $385 million in spare parts and equipment for a fleet of F-16s, as well as support for tactical communication system to Taiwan.
While the U.S. is obligated to help the island defend itself under the Taiwan Relations Act, it has maintained a position of strategic ambiguity over whether it would ever get involved if Taiwan were to be invaded by China.
A second Trump administration is expected to test U.S.-China relations even more than the Republican’s first term, when the U.S. imposed tariffs on more than $360 billion in Chinese products.
Taiwan is one of the main sources of tension in the bilateral relationship.
China's Foreign Ministry said Sunday it “strongly condemned" U.S. support for Lai's visit and had lodged a complaint with the U.S. It also condemned the weapons sale Friday, which it said “severely violated China's sovereignty and safety and interests.”
“China will closely monitor the situation's development, and take resolute and forceful measures to safeguard the country's sovereignty and territorial integrity," according to the statement.
When former Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen went to the U.S. last year as part of a transit to Latin America, it drew vocal opposition from China. Tsai met with the former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy at the time. Tsai visited Hawaii in 2019.
The Chinese military also launched drills around Taiwan last year as a “stern warning” over what it called collusion between “separatists and foreign forces” days after Lai, then Taiwan’s vice president, stopped over in the U.S.
China also strongly objects to leading American politicians visiting the island as it views any official contact with foreign governments and Taiwan as an infringement on its claims of sovereignty over Taiwan. Washington switched its formal recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979.
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Wu reported from Bangkok.
Taijing Wu, Huizhong Wu And Audrey Mcavoy, The Associated Press