While Taiwan's president plans a visit to Hawaii and Guam, China is likely planning military drills in response. Lai Ching-te's stopovers in the US state and territory as part of a weeklong Pacific tour to begin Saturday allows the president to shore up relations with US leaders even though the countries lack formal diplomatic ties. China, which considers Taiwan part of its territory, opposes official communication between Washington and Taipei. When Lai visited New York and San Francisco during a formal visit to Paraguay as vice president last year, China responded with military exercises around Taiwan, per the Wall Street Journal.
China has been complaining about a warming in US-Taiwan relations for years—understandably, as the US under President Biden has vowed to support Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion. "Using visits to so-called 'diplomatic allies' to engage in political manipulation and seek 'independence' provocations will never succeed," a rep for China's Foreign Ministry said last week, per the Journal. On Thursday, after Lai's US stops were confirmed, a Chinese military rep said the army will "resolutely crush any 'Taiwan independence' separatist schemes and firmly push back against interference from external forces."
Shortly after that statement, at least 19 Chinese aircraft were detected patrolling around Taiwan in coordination with Chinese navy vessels in a "joint combat readiness patrol," the island's Defense Ministry said, per AFP. Fresh military exercises are expected as Lai begins his first official overseas trip as president, which will also include visits to the Marshall Islands, Palau, and Tuvalu. Beijing is particularly interested in showing the incoming Trump administration that Taiwan and the rest of the first island chain is "within China's sphere of influence," regional security officials tell the Journal. (More Taiwan stories.)
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