Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

President William Lai (賴清德) on Sunday started his first overseas trip since taking office in May with a stopover in Hawaii on his way to visit the Marshall Islands, Tuvalu and Palau. The president set off on a mission not only to shore up relations with the nation’s three Pacific allies, but also to highlight that Taiwan can be a “force for peace” and is willing to work with like-minded democratic nations against Chinese expansionism in the Asia-Pacific region.

Despite China ramping up efforts to gain influence across the Pacific and entice small nation-states to shift diplomatic allegiances in recent years, the three South Pacific nations recently held major parliamentary elections and retained pro-Taiwan governments. These allies have consistently backed Taiwan in international events, such as the UN and the Pacific Islands Forum, and are expected to continue voicing their support for the nation.

The Mainland Affairs Council and lawmakers yesterday accused a visiting Chinese university student of denigrating Taiwan’s sovereignty by referring to the national baseball team that won a first-ever Premier12 title as “China, Taipei team” (中國台北隊).

“We deeply regret the Chinese student’s words, that have hurt the feelings of Taiwanese... The Ma Ying-jeou Foundation, as the organizers, should remind group members not to use inappropriate words and behavior,” a council statement said.

“We hope these young Chinese can accurately observe the true views of Taiwanese, which would be a positive development for interactions between young people on the two sides of the Taiwan Strait,” it said.