China issues rebuke to U.S., Taiwan over vice president's New York 'stopover'

Aug. 14 (UPI) -- Beijing has rebuked Taiwanese Vice President William Lai as a "troublemaker" over his recent visit to the United States on his way to Paraguay and accused his administration of using the trip to "solicit" U.S. support for independence.

Washington and Taipei arranged for Lai to engage in political activities in the United States in the name of having a "stopover" in violation of the one-China principle, "gravely undermining China's sovereignty and territorial integrity," China's foreign ministry spokesperson said in a statement Sunday.

"China deplores and strongly condemns the U.S. decision to arrange the so-called stopover for Lai Ching-te. Lai clings stubbornly to the separatist position for 'Taiwan independence.' He is a troublemaker through and through," the statement said.

China "firmly opposes any form of official interaction" between the United States and Taiwan, it said.

"We firmly oppose any visit by 'Taiwan independence' separatists to the United States in any name or under whatever pretext, and we firmly oppose the U.S. government having any form of official contact with the Taiwan region."

This was a "redline that must not be crossed" and Taipei's lobbying of U.S. support for Taiwan independence, together with the United States' insistence on using it to contain China, was to blame for tensions in the Taiwan Strait, it said.

Lai, the front-running Democratic Progressive Party candidate for president in May elections, arrived in New York on Saturday.

Lai told an informal meeting in New York that he would defend Taiwan's sovereignty against "authoritarianism."

The 63-year-old will attend the inauguration of Paraguay's President-elect Santiago Pena in Asuncion on Tuesday with a further stop planned for San Francisco on Wednesday en route back to Taiwan. Paraguay is one of only a handful of countries with which Taiwan has diplomatic relations.

U.S.-China relations have come under renewed strain in the past 12 months from disputes over trade, technology and territorial issues of which Taiwan is front and center, with Taipei saying it believes China will stage military exercises off the island this week.

It would be the fourth time Beijing has flexed its military might since then-U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's controversial August 2022 visit to Taiwan, prompting China to hold the most extensive military exercises in its history. A meeting in April between Pelosi's successor, Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen saw Beijing stage another aggressive show of strength in the Taiwan Strait and around the island.

Visits to the United States by Tsai in the run-up to her being elected president in 2016, and re-elected in 2020, triggered similar responses from Beijing.

In January, China conducted seaborne and aerial combat exercises sending dozens of aircraft and naval vessels close to Taiwan in what Beijing said was a response to "provocation and collusion by external forces," a thinly veiled reference to a visit by a delegation of German lawmakers.