China urges US to block Taiwan president Tsai Ing-wen from stopover

Taiwan president Tsai Ing-wen will transit through Houston and San Franciscoduring her January visit to allies in Latin America, her office said on Friday, prompting China to repeat a call for the US to block any such stopover. Tsai’s office declined to comment on whether she would be meeting members of Donald Trump’s team. The US mission in Taiwan, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), said the visit would be “private and unofficial”.

The president-elect angered China when he spoke to Tsai this month, in a break with decades of precedent. Trump’s attitude to China is uncertain, after he cast the country as a trade enemy during the presidential campaign and adopted a belligerent tone during a recent naval incident in the South China Sea. Read more