Taiwan Vice President Candidate Lai Ching-te will visit US in the coming weeks: Report

You must be aware that the President Elections of 2024 in Taiwan are just around the corner and this is when a new President will be elected by the people of Taiwan as the current President Tsai Ing-wen will not be able to contest the elections anymore as she has already completed both her tenures. Now, we have also seen that there is now an obligation for the Taiwanese Presidential Candidates to visit the US before elections in order to gather some sort of support, from we don’t know whom, and that is what will happen here as well. It is reported that Taiwan’s vice president candidate Lai Ching-te will visit the US in the next few weeks.

As reported by Bloomberg, people familiar with the matter said, “his trip would be low-profile and follow precedent with previous vice-presidential transits. Lai plans to meet with officials from the American Institute in Taiwan and with the Taiwanese community in the US. Bloomberg’s report also mentions that “The Biden administration is preparing for visits from Taiwan’s top presidential candidates in the coming weeks, as the US balances its support for the island’s democratic elections with managing Beijing’s reaction to the trips”.

It is revealed that “Taiwanese Vice President Lai Ching-te, who is also the presidential candidate of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, will pass through New York on Aug. 12-13 on his way to attend Paraguay’s presidential inauguration. He will then stop in San Francisco on Aug. 16-17 on his way back to Taipei”. China’s maritime safety administration recently announced, “it would hold military drills in the East China Sea from Saturday through Monday afternoon — such a move is typically a sign of displeasure from Beijing when timed to coincide with a political exchange it dislikes”. We have seen such drills announced by China earlier and they are whenever any politician from Taiwan visits the US or vice-versa. Taiwan also released a statement that “China has been bribing media over the past two weeks to release false news that smears Taiwan’s diplomatic efforts in an attempt to suppress Taiwan’s diplomatic space,” over alleged deal with Paraguayan media outlets to spread negative coverage of Lai’s visit.