Taiwan's President Lai Ching-te is set to delay a diplomatically sensitive trip his team had floated to the Trump administration for August that would have included stops in the United States, according to multiple people familiar with the matter.
Mr Lai is yet to visit the US since President Donald Trump took office, but such a trip was bound to infuriate Beijing at a time when the US president was trying to negotiate a deal on trade with China, according to Reuters.
China claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, and regularly denounces any shows of support for Taipei from Washington.
Taiwan's government rejects Beijing's sovereignty claims and says only the island's people can decide their future
The trip, which would have included stopping in New York and Dallas on the way to and from Latin America, was never formally confirmed but had been discussed with the governments involved, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Mr Lai was set to delay the trip until at least later this year for a handful of reasons, including the need to organise his government's response to extreme weather in Taiwan, one of the sources told Reuters.
Two sources spoken to by Reuters also pinned the delay on the ongoing US tariff talks with Taipei and Beijing, respectively.
The Financial Times reported that, according to multiple sources, the US told Mr Lai he could not visit New York on the way, and that was the reason the trip was delayed.
China faces an August 12 deadline to reach a durable tariff agreement with the Trump administration, after weeks of escalating tit-for-tat tariffs and a blockade on rare earth minerals.
Without an agreement, global supply chains could face renewed turmoil from US duties snapping back to triple-digit levels, which would amount to a bilateral trade embargo.
The White House and China's embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Taiwan's delayed trip to the US, while Taiwan's Presidential Office was not immediately available for comment late on Monday night.
"There's no such thing as cancelling the trip," said a person with direct knowledge of the matter, who said stopovers were likely to include Texas and another city in the US mainland.
"In fact, further arrangements for the trip will be made later this year."
Earlier on Monday, Taiwan's Presidential Office spokesperson Karen Kuo said once the president's overseas visit itinerary was finalised, it would be announced to the public in a timely manner.
"However, considering the recent typhoon disaster recovery efforts in southern Taiwan, the US–Taiwan reciprocal tariff measures and regional developments, the president currently has no plans for overseas visits in the near future," Ms Kuo said.
US–China trade negotiations continue
The decision comes as Mr Trump has tried to lower tensions with Chinese President Xi Jinping and potentially have a summit in Asia with him this autumn.
China's Foreign Ministry has previously condemned what it called "sneaky visits" to the US by Taiwanese leaders under any pretext.
They said the US must understand how sensitive the Taiwan issue was and act with the utmost caution.
Yesterday, top US and Chinese economic officials huddled in Stockholm, Sweden for more than 5 hours to resolve longstanding economic disputes and extend a truce by three months.
Negotiators from both sides were seen exiting the office around 8pm, local time, and did not stop to speak with reporters.
Tariff discussions between the US and China are expected to resume today.
US trade representative Jamieson Greer said he did not expect an "enormous breakthrough" today.
"What I expect is continued monitoring and checking in on the implementation of our agreement thus far, making sure that key critical minerals are flowing between the parties and setting the groundwork for enhanced trade and balanced trade going forward," he told CNBC.
The Stockholm talks follow Mr Trump's biggest trade deal yet with the European Union, for a 15 per cent tariff on most EU goods exports to the United States.
Restoring a relationship
Trade analysts said another 90-day extension of a tariff and export control truce struck in mid-May between China and the United States was likely, and would facilitate a potential meeting between both leaders in late October or early November.
So far, the talks have not delved into broader economic issues.
Previous trade talks in Geneva and London focused on bringing US and Chinese retaliatory tariffs down from triple-digit levels and restoring the flow of rare earth minerals halted by China, and the US's stoppage of goods including Nvidia's advanced chips.
They included US complaints that China's state-led, export-driven model was flooding world markets with cheap goods, and Beijing's complaints that US national security export controls on tech goods sought to stunt Chinese growth.
"Geneva and London were really just about trying to get the relationship back on track so that they could, at some point, actually negotiate about the issues which animate the disagreement between the countries in the first place," said Scott Kennedy, a China economics expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
Analysts say the US-China negotiations are far more complex than those with other Asian countries and will require more time.
China's grip on the global market for rare earth minerals and magnets, used in everything from military hardware to car windshield wiper motors, has proved to be an effective leverage point on US industries.
Reuters
