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Hong Kong
CNN
—
Taiwan has every right to “connect with the world,” its President Tsai Ing-wen declared Wednesday as she embarked on a diplomatic mission to Central America, which will include transit in the United States – and has already been condemned by China.
Tsai departed Taipei on Wednesday for a 10-day trip in which she will make stopovers in New York City and Los Angeles on either side of official visits to Guatemala and Belize.
“External pressure won’t stop our determination from moving toward international society,” Tsai told reporters before taking off. “We’re calm, confident, uncompromising and unprovocative.”
The trip has attracted heightened attention following reports that Tsai would meet US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy during one of her unofficial stopovers in the US.
Taiwan has yet to confirm such a meeting.
McCarthy this month said he would meet Tsai while she was in the US, though he gave no date.
China hit out against the trip ahead of Tsai’s departure, pledging on Wednesday to “resolutely fight back” if Tsai met McCarthy – a move Beijing would view as a violation of its sovereignty.
China’s ruling Communist Party claims the self-governing island democracy as its own despite never having controlled it and has not ruled out using force to one day take Taiwan.
Washington believes there is “absolutely no reason” for Beijing to use Tsai’s transit as an excuse to carry out “aggressive or coercive activities” aimed at Taiwan, a US senior administration official told reporters, though privately there are concerns among some US officials about how Beijing may react.
Beijing fired multiple missiles and launched extensive military patrols around the island following a visit by then-US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi last August –…
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