Taiwan President William Lai’s Pacific tour highlights efforts to counter China’s expansion

Taiwan President William Lai’s stopover in Hawaii and Guam during his/her first overseas visit to Taiwan’s Pacific diplomatic allies reflects efforts by Taiwan and the US to challenge China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the Taipei Times reported Tuesday. Reported citing Taipei-based security. expert.

Taiwan’s president arrived in Hawaii on Saturday for a two-day visit en route to Palau, the Marshall Islands and Tuvalu, with a stopover scheduled in Guam on his/her return trip.

Lai’s visit is seen as a strategic step to link the first, second and third island chains, according to Sun Tzu-yun, a research fellow at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, the Taipei Times reported. Taiwan is located on the first island chain, Guam and Palau on the second and Hawaii on the third. Su stressed the strategic importance of these islands in countering China’s expansion, especially its BRI.

The first island chain is considered a vital line of defense against Chinese expansion and a vital sea route for fuel, with Taiwan at its core, the Taipei Times reports. Su said China’s infrastructure projects in the Solomon Islands, Peru and Kiribati – such as deep-water ports and a space tracking station – underscore the importance of strengthening the second island chain to protect the first. The report said that these efforts are in line with the strategic interests of the US and its allies.

Open-source data revealed the deployment of several US carrier strike groups, including the George Washington CSG at Yokosuka, Japan; Abraham Lincoln CSG in Port Klang, Malaysia; and USS Carl Vinson in the eastern Pacific. Asked whether these deployments were linked to Lai’s visit, Chieh Chung, a research fellow at the Association for Strategic Foresight, said they were probably intended to deter China, but they were not specifically linked to Lai’s itinerary.

According to the Taipei Times, experts suggest Lai’s transit through the US could provoke Beijing to conduct large-scale military exercises near Taiwan to establish a response framework for US President-elect Donald Trump regarding Taiwan. Is. However, such actions could cause Trump to incinerate, the academic said.

The three island chains are of great strategic importance. The first island chain includes the Aleutian Islands, Japan, South Korea, the Ryukyu Islands, Taiwan, the Philippines, and the Greater Sunda Islands. The second island chain extends to Izu, Bonin, Mariana and Caroline Islands, Guam, Palau and Halmahera Islands. The third island chain includes Alaska, Hawaii, the US-administered Pacific Islands, Australia, and New Zealand.