China has warned Taiwan’s president that he should stay in the U.S

Taiwan’s first diplomatic trip to Central America: “It is not an excuse for the US transiting to the United States,” a Taiwanese diplomat told reporters

Taiwan has every right to “connect with the world,” its President Tsai Ing-wen declared Wednesday as she embarked on a diplomatic mission to Central America, which will include transit in the United States – and has already been condemned by China.

Her carefully choreographed trip comes at a tense moment for Taiwan. Last week, Honduras, once one of the few remaining countries which formally recognized Taiwan’s government, formally switched ties to Beijing. Tsai next heads to Belize and Guatemala, both of which still have formal ties with Taipei.

“External pressure will not hinder our determination to go to the world. We will not yield nor provoke, Tsai told reporters before leaving from Taipei.

The trip has attracted extra attention due to the possibility that she would meet the US House Speaker, Kevin McCarthy.

After former speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan, Beijing staged unprecedented military drills and cut off dialogue with the US, though they have not specified how they intend to retaliate.

It also took aim at the US as Tsai was en route, with the Foreign Ministry calling on Washington to stop committing “dangerous acts that underline the political foundation of the two countries’ relations.”

On Wednesday a spokesperson of China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, Zhu Fenglian, accused Taiwanese authorities of using such visits to “seek support from anti-China forces in the United States.”

China has increased diplomatic and economic pressure on the island, including inducing Taiwan’s allies to switch their loyalties.

There is no reason for Beijing to use the transit as an excuse to carry out aggressive activities against Taiwan, a US senior administration official told reporters.

Beijing fired multiple missiles and launched extensive military patrols around the island following a visit by then-US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi last August – the first from a lawmaker of her rank in 25 years.

The visit placed strain on the relationship between the US and China because legislators didn’t make their decisions from the US executive branch.

The planned visit of the US Secretary of State to Beijing last month was canceled after a suspected Chinese balloon was shot down over the US.

US officials have engaged in multiple communications with Chinese officials in Washington and Beijing over the past several weeks to provide them with information about the past US transits of Taiwan’s presidents, a senior administration official told reporters last week.

“In all previous transits President Tsai met with members of Congress as well as state and local officials. She had public appearances, and she attended engagements with the Taiwanese diaspora,” the official said. The Chair of the board of trustees of the American institute in Taiwan will welcome the president during this transit.

The number of countries with official ties to Taiwan has gone from 13 to 13 in recent years, with a number of people in the Pacific and Central America now recognizing China.

Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan last year was to make it clear the US will not abandon the island.

Tsai’s dates in the U.S. align with a trip to China by former Taiwan president Ma Ying-jeoh, who is currently touring the mainland for the first time, on a trip billed as a cultural and academic exchange. The timing of Ma’s trip was not planned to coincide with the trip of Tsai, but it has used as a political counterbalance to her US stops.

In comments in the eastern city of Nanjing at the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum on Tuesday, Ma said that people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait were “ethnic Chinese” and shared the same ancestors.

Beijing, which considers Taiwan part of its territory and opposes interactions between Taiwan and other state officials, has already signaled its unhappiness.

China is already doing what it takes to make a better world: why do we care about what we’re doing, and why we shouldn’t do it anymore?

“It feels like everybody realizes we got really close to something really bad. A Taiwan expert and professor at Davidson College says that we should be more cautious.

The stops aren’t new. Despite Beijing limiting Taiwan’s space on the international stage, the president has visited the U.S. almost every year for the last three years, despite the global coronaviruses epidemic.