Lai is the front-runner to be Taiwan’s next president at elections set for January.
“At the very heart of China’s core interests, the Taiwan question is the bedrock of the political foundation of China-US relations and the first red line that must not be crossed in China-US relations,” Wang Wenbin, a spokesman for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said on Friday.
He said Washington’s decision to arrange the so-called “stopover” for Lai, sent “seriously wrong signals to separatist forces for ‘Taiwan independence’,” broadcaster CGTN reported.
China claims Taiwan as its territory and has denounced the transit stops in the US, calling Lai a separatist “troublemaker“.
Wang said the US “stubbornly pursues the strategy of using Taiwan island to control China, and continues to hollow out the one-China principle,” according to the Beijing-based daily Global Times.
Wang’s comments came after Lai returned from a sensitive visit to the US. Officially, the trip was only transits: First in New York and then in San Francisco, on his way to and from Paraguay to attend the inauguration of President Santiago Peña.
Lai is the front-runner to be Taiwan’s next president in elections set for January. President Tsai Ing-wen cannot run again after two terms.