The U.S. and Taiwan are closer than ever, Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen told supporters during a stopover in New York that so far, according to Taipei and Washington, has not triggered unusual military actions by China.
Tsai arrived in New York on Wednesday on her way to Central America, and on her way back to Taipei next week will stop in Los Angeles where she is expected to meet U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, an interaction China has warned could lead to a “serious confrontation” in U.S.-China relations.
The visit comes at a time when U.S. relations with China are at what some analysts see as their worst level since Washington normalized ties with Beijing in 1979 and switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei.
Beijing says Taiwan belongs to “one China” and, as a Chinese province, has no right to state-to-state ties. Taiwan disputes this.
On what is her first U.S. stopover since 2019, Tsai touted Taiwan’s economic, security and diplomatic achievements in a closed-door speech on Wednesday night to overseas Taiwanese in New York, her office said in a statement on Thursday, calling the island a “beacon of democracy in Asia.”
“In particular, the relationship between Taiwan and the United States is closer than ever,” she said, noting “significant progress” in economic and security cooperation.
Tsai said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd (TSMC) (2330.TW), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, establishing a factory in Phoenix, Arizona, demonstrated the island’s technological strength.
Though Taiwan faced “enormous challenges,” it would not be isolated, Tsai said. She also thanked the U.S. government for implementing security agreements with Taiwan, including nine announced arms sales by President Joe Biden’s administration.
Laura Rosenberger, chair at the Washington headquarters of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), a U.S. government-run, non-profit organization that carries out unofficial relations with Taiwan, and New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy also attended the event, according to Tsai’s office.
Tsai on Thursday received a global leadership award from the Hudson Institute, the U.S. think tank said in a short statement.
“She has led a vibrant democracy with great courage and clear-eyed determination to resist tyranny and maintain a free and open Indo-Pacific. We are proud that America stands with Taiwan,” the institute’s president and CEO John P. Walters said in a statement.
Taiwan’s de facto embassy in the U.S. has said all of her engagements in New York are closed to the press and public.
NO CHINESE MILITARY ACTION
Taiwan’s defense ministry, in its daily update on China’s military activities, said that from Wednesday to Thursday morning it had not spotted any Chinese aircraft entering Taiwan’s air defense zone or crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait, which serves as an unofficial barrier.
China’s air force flies almost daily into the air defense zone, or across the median line, in which Taiwan calls “grey zone” warfare designed to test and wear out its forces.
A senior Taiwan security official said earlier that the island expects a less severe reaction from Beijing to a Tsai-McCarthy meeting than when then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taipei last year, something that prompted China to stage major military drills.