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Authors: Michael Martina and David Brunnstrom
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Two senior Taiwanese government members are in the United States to meet with people connected to President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team, five sources told Reuters, as Taiwan seeks to forge ties with the new administration.
Lin Fei-fan and Hsu Szu-chien, both deputy secretaries-general of Taiwan’s National Security Council, and several of their staff traveled to the Washington area for meetings this week, the sources said on condition of anonymity.
Reuters could not confirm who from the US side would join the meetings or the agenda.
Taiwan’s de facto embassy in Washington, the Chinese embassy and Trump’s transition team did not respond to requests for comment.
The visit by Lin and Hsu comes as China’s military has stepped up activity near the Taiwan Strait in what Taiwan said was an effort by Beijing to set a “red line” for the incoming Trump administration and US allies.
One of the sources said the meetings were with individuals in Trump’s transition circles but would not include candidates for top positions in the next Trump administration, given the sensitivity in Beijing about any talks between Taiwanese and US officials.
The meetings are with “Republicans who are likely to occupy mid-level policy positions” in the Trump administration, another source said. A third source said it’s “safe to say” Lin and Hsu are meeting with Trump’s transition team.
The United States does not have formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan, a self-governing island that China claims as its territory. Taiwan rejects Beijing’s claims to sovereignty, saying only the islanders can decide their future.
HOPE AND WORRY IN TAIWAN
Trump’s election victory in November raised hopes in Taipei that he would continue to take a hard line with China, but also raised concerns over his comments that the island should pay for US defense.
Trump has appointed a number of China hawks to key positions in his new administration, including Sen. Marco Rubio as secretary of state, who has called for smooth interaction between US and Taiwan officials.
The nominations were encouraging for Taipei, which Reuters reported could lead to major new arms deals to show it is taking seriously Trump’s statements that Taiwan should pay “protection” money to the United States.
The engagement so far between Taiwan and the new administration appears to fall into the gray area of unofficial contact and has been modest. This is a departure from the period before Trump’s first term, when in December 2016, a month before the inauguration, he had a telephone conversation with the then president of Taiwan, Tsai Ing-wen.
The call was the first time since 1979 that a US president-elect had spoken to the island’s president, a move that angered China.
Ahead of his second inauguration, scheduled for Jan. 20, CBS News reported Wednesday that Trump has invited Xi to attend the event, which would be unprecedented for a Chinese leader.
The president-elect’s camp and China did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the report, but Trump said in an interview with NBC News last Friday that he “got along very well” with Xi and that they “had communication just this week.”
