Donald Trump won’t be the only one making a presidential stop in Honolulu in coming days.
Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen is expected to arrive today for a short visit on her first official trip to Hawaii on what is technically labeled a “transit.”
In 1979 the United States severed diplomatic relations with Taiwan and recognized the People’s Republic of China as the sole legal government of China — Taiwan included — which became part of what is known as the “one China policy.”
But “maintaining strong, unofficial relations with Taiwan is a major U.S. goal, in line with the U.S. desire to further peace and stability in Asia,” the U.S. State Department says on its website.
Hence, the mostly short-term “transits” through the United States made for more than a decade by presidents of the Republic of China, Taiwan’s official name.
The last visit to Honolulu by a Taiwanese president was in 2014 by Ma Ying-jeou, said Shirley Kan, a retired specialist in Asian security affairs who worked for Congress and is on the nonprofit Global Taiwan Institute’s advisory board.
Tsai, who was sworn in as Taiwan’s president in May 2016, is coming through Hawaii this weekend on a trip that also includes the Marshall Islands, Tuvalu, the Solomon Islands and Guam, said Kan, who wrote about the trip for the Taipei Times.
Tsai’s trip precedes President Trump’s expected stop in Hawaii and visit to the USS Arizona Memorial on Nov. 3 by less than a week. Trump is traveling to Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam and the Philippines from Nov. 3 to 14 on his first official Asia trip.
Neither the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Honolulu nor the National Park Service could be reached Thursday to see whether Tsai also will visit the Arizona Memorial.
Tsai’s visit, even though a “transit,” is still fraught with diplomatic sensitivities. Kan said even paying respects at the Arizona Memorial would be viewed through the lens of “Should she do anything in public?”
China closely watches and frequently complains about Taiwan’s presidential transits through the United States and warns of the consequences of meetings with some U.S. officials.
However, “Members of Congress have been free to meet with the president of Taiwan (and) have done so many times,” Kan said.
James Moriarty, Hawaii-based chairman of the American Institute in Taiwan, a nonprofit corporation created to manage the unofficial U.S. relationship with Taiwan, is expected to meet with Tsai, Kan said.
Kan said while visiting
Honolulu, Tsai will be at an “important site that serves as a connector” to Republic of China founding father Sun Yat-sen.
Sun first came to Hawaii in 1878, attended ‘Iolani and Punahou schools, and later became the first president of China’s first republic by overthrowing the Qing Dynasty in 1911, according to the Sun Yat-sen Hawaii Foundation.
The State Department said Taiwan is the United States’ ninth-largest trading partner and that the United States is Taiwan’s second-largest trading partner.
Trump made waves with China in early December when he took a congratulatory phone call from Tsai in what was the first direct contact with a Taiwanese president in nearly four decades. He later agreed to honor the “one China” policy.
In June the United States agreed to sell $1.42 billion in arms to Taiwan. The same month, the Senate Armed Services Committee approved a resumption of U.S. Navy port calls at Taiwanese ports. China objected strongly to both.
