Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen to visit US next week amid Chinese aggression

The Biden administration is urging China not to use president to raise tensions, with a senior official saying the trip is consistent with previous ones that passed without incident.

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen plans to stop in New York and Los Angeles in coming weeks on her way to and from formal visits to Guatemala and Belize. These stops, often called transits, are part of the over Taiwan and are intended to hew to a U.S. commitment to Beijing to maintain unofficial relations with Taiwan, while allowing its leaders to meet with supporters, including members of Congress.

Ms. Tsai is scheduled to land in New York late on the evening of March 29 and depart for Central America the night of March 31, Lin Yu-chan, a spokeswoman for Ms. Tsai, said at a press briefing in Taipei on Tuesday. Coming the other way, the Taiwanese leader plans to touch down in Los Angeles on the night of April 4 before returning to Taiwan two days later.

Taiwan presidents have  through successive U.S. presidential administrations, the senior administration official said Monday. Ms. Tsai, since becoming president in 2016, made six such stops through 2019 “without incident and with minimal P.R.C response,” the official said, referring to the People’s Republic of China.