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Taiwan
ChinaDiplomacy

Taiwanese presidential hopeful William Lai to stop in US during Paraguay trip

  • The DPP candidate will transit through New York and San Francisco when he travels to attend inauguration in South American ally country
  • However, the independence-leaning politician denies controversial stops in Washington and Virginia headquarters of de facto US embassy

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Taiwanese presidential candidate William Lai (right) will travel to Paraguay to attend the presidential inauguration of Santiago Pena (left). Photo: AFP / Taiwan’s Presidential Office
Minnie Chan
Taiwanese Vice-President William Lai Ching-te will stop in the US when he attends the inauguration of Paraguayan President Santiago Pena next week, Taiwan’s Presidential Office announced on Wednesday.
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Lai will transit through New York on his way to Paraguay – one of the island’s last remaining allies – and stop in San Francisco on his way home, said Alexander Yui Tah-ray, Taiwan’s foreign vice-minister.
Lai, who will represent the ruling Democratic Progressive Party in the island’s presidential election next year, will lead a delegation of about 50 Taiwanese business leaders and government officials for the week-long trip, according to Yui.

But Yui denied earlier media reports that Lai had asked to visit Washington and Arlington, Virginia, home to the headquarters of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), the de facto US embassy in Taiwan.

“From the very beginning, Washington and Arlington, Virginia were never under consideration for the Paraguay trip and coordinating transit in the US,” Yui said at a press conference organised by the Presidential Office.

“All this speculation mentioned by the outside world has now proved to be untrue,” he added.

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Yui declined to provide details about who Lai would meet in the US, except to say he would travel in his capacity as an envoy of Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, who also transited in the US in April on her way to visit Taiwan’s diplomatic allies Guatemala and Belize.

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