President Tsai Will Stop in the US This Week, Taiwan's Vice Minister of Defense Says He Sees No Signs of China's Military Deployment

Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen. (Wikimedia Commons/)

JAKARTA - Taiwan's deputy defense minister said he saw no signs of an unusual military deployment by China, ahead of the country's presidential visit to the United States and Central America this week.

The plan is for President Tsai to depart for New York on Wednesday for stops en route to Guatemala and Belize. On his return, he will transit in Los Angeles, where he is likely to meet US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, before returning to Taiwan.

Answering lawmakers' questions at a meeting, Taiwan Deputy Defense Minister Po Horng-huei said China has three to four warships operating around Taiwan every day, which has become the "new normal".

If there is a change in China's military deployment, Taiwan should be prepared for the worst-case scenario, he said.

"So far there is no sign of any special military deployment," Po said, citing Reuters, March 27.

Last week, the White House said there was no reason for China to react to President Tsai's visit to the United States.

"There is no reason for China to overreact. There is no reason for them to overreact," said White House national security spokesman John Kirby.

"This is something ... that is commonplace and has happened before, it will most likely happen again. This is private, not official," he said.

Earlier, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said his side strongly opposes any contact between the United States and the Taiwanese government, stressing it had made "strong remarks" to Washington about the stopover.

"We again warn the Taiwanese authorities, there is no way out for Taiwan independence, and any illusions about colluding with external forces to seek independence and provocations are doomed to failure," Wang stressed.

It is known, Guatemala and Belize are two of the 14 countries that have formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan.

Last year, China, which was furious with the visit of then US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taipei in August, immediately held military drills for days around Taiwan.