Three US representatives have called on US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to meet with President William Lai (賴清德) during his US stopovers as he travels to and from Paraguay next month.
Paraguayan President Santiago Pena on July 14 said that his country is preparing to welcome Lai next month.
Lai might stop over in New York and Dallas, Texas, during state visits next month to Taiwan’s allies in Central and South America, including Paraguay, Guatemala and Belize, Taiwanese news media reported.
Photo: Reuters
US representatives Tom Tiffany, Chris Smith and Andy Ogles on Thursday sent a letter to Rubio regarding Lai’s US stopovers, encouraging him or another Cabinet-level official to consider meeting with Lai.
They cited US Congress legislation in 2018 — which Rubio sponsored as a senator — that encouraged meetings between senior US officials and their Taiwanese counterparts, and said that Lai’s US transits could be a key opportunity to use that law.
“A high-level meeting with President Lai would also underscore the importance America affixes to the US-Taiwan friendship, help Taiwan cement its remaining diplomatic relationships in our hemisphere,” they said.
It would also “send a clear message that Beijing’s outrageous meddling in American foreign policy is both unwelcome and unacceptable,” they said.
During US President Donald Trump’s first term as president, the US Department of State repealed several self-imposed bureaucratic obstacles to engagement between Taiwanese officials and US executive branch personnel, they said.
However, the “guidelines” were reimposed during the early days of former US president Joe Biden’s administration, including restricting their interaction with news media and conducting public engagements, they said, adding that they hope Rubio would refrain from imposing such conditions during Lai’s upcoming visit.
“The world has undergone dramatic changes since the era of [former US presidents] Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter. Taiwan has become a vibrant, multi-party democracy, while Communist China has become more oppressive, more belligerent and more dangerous,” they said. “Yet America’s policy framework remains frozen in time — a hopelessly antiquated relic of the 1970s.”
A personal meeting with Lai would make it clear that “this era is finally over,” they added.
A statement from Smith’s office on Friday also said that Smith, as cochairman of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC), has repeatedly underscored the important role Taiwan plays in countering Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Taiwan, as a frontline state, is absorbing much of the CCP’s belligerent attention, Smith said at a CECC hearing about standing with Taipei in countering Beijing’s political warfare and transnational repression.
“Taiwan’s security is America’s security,” as the campaigns waged against Taiwan are also being used against the US, he said.
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