Two senior members of the government are in the US to meet people connected to US president-elect Donald Trump’s transition team in an effort to establish ties with the incoming administration, five sources said.
National Security Council deputy secretaries-general Lin Fei-fan (林飛帆) and Hsu Szu-chien (徐斯儉), and several of their staff have traveled to Washington for meetings this week, the sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
It is not confirmed who from the US side would join the meetings or the agenda.
Photo: Taipei Times
The Presidential Office said the national security team’s visit and “exchanges” were a routine part of their work, and that it had no further comment.
The Trump transition team did not respond to requests for comment.
One of the sources said the meetings were with people in Trump transition circles, but would not include nominees for top positions in Trump’s next administration, given the sensitivity in Beijing over any talks between Taiwanese and US officials.
The meetings are with “Republicans likely to populate mid-tier political positions” in the Trump administration, a second source said.
A third source said it was “safe to say” Lin and Hsu were meeting the Trump transition team.
A fourth source added that visits to the US at such a level are not rare and that they are to meet “old friends,” including people in Trump’s circle.
Asked about the visits, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it urged the US to “cautiously handle the Taiwan issue and not send any wrong signals to Taiwanese independence separatist forces.”
Trump has named numerous China hawks to key posts in his incoming administration, including US Senator Marco Rubio as secretary of state.
Rubio has called for unfettered interaction between US and Taiwanese officials.
Those nominations have been encouraging for Taipei. Following Trump’s election victory last month, it was reported that Taiwan might place large new arms orders to show it takes seriously Trump’s statements that Taiwan should pay “protection” money to the US.
Engagement to date between Taiwan and the incoming administration appears to fall in a gray area of unofficial contact and has been low-key.
That is a departure from the period before Trump’s first term, when in December 2016, the month before his inauguration, he held a phone call with then-president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文).
That call marked the first time since 1979 that a US president-elect had spoken with the nation’s president.
Ahead of his second inauguration on Jan. 20, CBS News on Wednesday reported that Trump had invited Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to attend the event, something that would be unprecedented for a Chinese leader.
Trump’s camp did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the report, but Trump in an interview with NBC News on Friday last week said that he “got along very well” with Xi and that they had “had communication as recently as this week.”
Chinese-language media in Taiwan have reported that Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) might have been tapped to attend the inauguration.
However, the Presidential Office on Tuesday declined to comment, saying that plans are still being made and would be formally announced when appropriate.
Additional reporting by CNA
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