TAIPEI: Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen will transit through Houston and San Francisco during her January visit to allies in Latin America, her office said Friday, prompting China to repeat a call for the US to block any such stopover.
Tsai’s office declined to comment on whether she would be meeting members of US President-elect Donald Trump’s team, but the US mission in Taiwan, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), said the visit would be “private and unofficial.”
Trump angered China when he spoke to Tsai this month in a break with decades of precedent and cast doubt on his incoming administration’s commitment to Beijing’s “one China” policy.
China is deeply suspicious of Tsai, who it thinks wants to push for the formal independence of Taiwan, a self-governing island that Beijing regards as a renegade province, ineligible for state-to-state relations.
China’s Foreign Ministry repeated a previous call for the United States not to allow the transit and not send any “wrong signals to Taiwan independence forces.”
“We think everyone is very clear on her real intentions,” the ministry said, without explaining.
The United States, which switched diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China in 1979, has acknowledged the Chinese position that there is only “one China” and that Taiwan is part of it.
Tsai is transiting in the United States on her way to and from visiting Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala and El Salvador in that order. She will leave Taiwan on Jan. 7 and return on Jan. 15.
Tsai will arrive in Houston on Jan. 7 and leave the following day. On her return, she will arrive in San Francisco on Jan. 13, Presidential Office spokesman Alex Huang told a regular news briefing.
The AIT said the transit did not contradict the “one China” policy.
“President Tsai’s transit through the United States is based on long-standing US practice and is consistent with the unofficial nature of our relations with Taiwan,” Alys Spensley, acting AIT spokeswoman, told Reuters.
“There is no change to the US ‘one China’ policy,” she added.
Spensley said that Tsai’s transits would be “private and unofficial.”
China has claimed sovereignty over Taiwan since 1949, when Mao Zedong’s Communist forces won the Chinese civil war and Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists fled to the island.
Speaking to members of China’s largely ceremonial advisory body to parliament earlier on Friday, Chinese President Xi Jinping said next year China would make “unremitting efforts” at unification and developing peaceful relations across the Taiwan Strait, state news agency Xinhua said.
Taiwan had as many as 30 diplomatic allies in the mid-1990s, but now has formal relations with just 21, mostly smaller and poorer nations in Latin America and the Pacific and including the Vatican.
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Taiwan announces US itinerary for president, upsetting China
Taiwan announces US itinerary for president, upsetting China
Pentagon shoots down government drone in Texas accident, congressional aides say
- Pentagon deployed laser-based anti-drone system, aides say
- System shot down Customs and Border Protection drone near Mexican border, aides say
WASHINGTON: The US military shot down a US government drone with a laser-based anti-drone system, an accident that prompted the Federal Aviation Administration to bar flights on Thursday in an area around Fort Hancock, Texas, congressional aides told Reuters.
The Pentagon did not immediately comment, but the FAA cited “special security reasons” in its notice about the restrictions on the airspace near the Mexican border.
US Representatives Rick Larsen, Bennie Thompson and Andre Carson, top Democrats on committees overseeing aviation and Homeland Security issues, said in a joint statement the Pentagon reportedly shot down a Customs and Border Protection drone, and criticized the lack of coordination.
The lawmakers said they warned months ago that the White House’s decision to sidestep a bipartisan proposal to train counter-drone operators and address coordination issues “was a short-sighted idea.”
“Now, we’re seeing the result of incompetence,” the statement said.
Congressional aides told Reuters the Pentagon was believed to have used the high-energy laser system to shoot down the CBP drone near the Mexican border, in an area that often has incursions from Mexican drones used by drug cartels. CBP and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The FAA said it was expanding prior flight restrictions in the area to “include a greater radius to ensure safety” but said it did not impact commercial flights because of its location.
This month, the FAA said it was halting traffic for 10 days at the airport in nearby El Paso, Texas, only to reverse course and lift its order after about eight hours. Fort Hancock is about 50 miles (80 km) from El Paso.
Reuters and other media reported that the closure stemmed from concerns about the use of the laser-based anti-drone system and that the FAA had agreed to drop its restrictions around El Paso if the Pentagon agreed to delay further testing pending an FAA safety review.
Both the Pentagon and CBP told congressional aides earlier this week they believed they could deploy the laser without the FAA’s prior approval.
Aides said there was a lack of coordination between the FAA and Pentagon. The government informed congressional offices about the El Paso closure as well as the Fort Hancock incident late on Thursday.
The FAA notice barred all flights in the Fort Hancock area but said air ambulance or search and rescue flights can be authorized with the Joint Task Force-Southern Border. The flight restrictions are to last until June 24.
Government agencies briefed congressional staff earlier this week on the El Paso incident and are expected to brief lawmakers as soon as next week.
CBP deployed the laser technology this month to reportedly take down four suspected cartel drones, despite warnings from the FAA that the technology had not been deemed safe to use in the same vicinity as commercial flights, an aide told Reuters, adding agencies told them the laser had never before been deployed domestically.
The Pentagon did not immediately comment, but the FAA cited “special security reasons” in its notice about the restrictions on the airspace near the Mexican border.
US Representatives Rick Larsen, Bennie Thompson and Andre Carson, top Democrats on committees overseeing aviation and Homeland Security issues, said in a joint statement the Pentagon reportedly shot down a Customs and Border Protection drone, and criticized the lack of coordination.
The lawmakers said they warned months ago that the White House’s decision to sidestep a bipartisan proposal to train counter-drone operators and address coordination issues “was a short-sighted idea.”
“Now, we’re seeing the result of incompetence,” the statement said.
Congressional aides told Reuters the Pentagon was believed to have used the high-energy laser system to shoot down the CBP drone near the Mexican border, in an area that often has incursions from Mexican drones used by drug cartels. CBP and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The FAA said it was expanding prior flight restrictions in the area to “include a greater radius to ensure safety” but said it did not impact commercial flights because of its location.
This month, the FAA said it was halting traffic for 10 days at the airport in nearby El Paso, Texas, only to reverse course and lift its order after about eight hours. Fort Hancock is about 50 miles (80 km) from El Paso.
Reuters and other media reported that the closure stemmed from concerns about the use of the laser-based anti-drone system and that the FAA had agreed to drop its restrictions around El Paso if the Pentagon agreed to delay further testing pending an FAA safety review.
Both the Pentagon and CBP told congressional aides earlier this week they believed they could deploy the laser without the FAA’s prior approval.
Aides said there was a lack of coordination between the FAA and Pentagon. The government informed congressional offices about the El Paso closure as well as the Fort Hancock incident late on Thursday.
The FAA notice barred all flights in the Fort Hancock area but said air ambulance or search and rescue flights can be authorized with the Joint Task Force-Southern Border. The flight restrictions are to last until June 24.
Government agencies briefed congressional staff earlier this week on the El Paso incident and are expected to brief lawmakers as soon as next week.
CBP deployed the laser technology this month to reportedly take down four suspected cartel drones, despite warnings from the FAA that the technology had not been deemed safe to use in the same vicinity as commercial flights, an aide told Reuters, adding agencies told them the laser had never before been deployed domestically.
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