The Presidential Office yesterday denied a Chinese-language media report that said President William Lai (賴清德) was planning to travel overseas soon.
“The president currently has no plans for overseas visits,” Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said in a statement, adding that “any such arrangement will be reported to the public in due time.”
The statement was in response to a report by United Daily News earlier yesterday, which said that Lai was planning to travel to Taiwan’s diplomatic allies late this month or early next month and make stopovers in the US.
Photo: Chen Yun, Taipei Times
It was “regrettable” that the report contained “false” descriptions and “much speculation,” Kuo said, adding that the news media should not print “distorted” stories and “mislead the public.”
The newspaper reported that Lai was likely to visit Paraguay and that the nature of the president’s stopovers in the US could shake up the relationships between Taiwan, the US and China.
However, there seemed to be some discontinuity between the Presidential Office’s statement and comments last month by Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍).
Lin had said that his ministry was planning Lai’s first visit to diplomatic allies after taking office in May.
Nothing has been finalized, Lin told a news conference on July 10, adding the ministry was still assessing whether Lai should make stopovers on US soil at a time when the US presidential race was heating up.
Despite a lack of formal diplomatic relations between Taiwan and the US, Washington has allowed Taiwanese presidents to make stopovers there during their trips to visit Taiwan’s diplomatic allies in Central and South America, and the Caribbean.
How they were received in the US was often interpreted by the media as a sign of how Washington wanted to handle its relationship with Taipei.
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