No Trump-Tsai meeting, US president-elect's team insists

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Donald Trump will not meet with Taiwan leader Tsai Ing-wen during her transit stops in the US, according to a member of the president-elect’s transition team.

The Associated Press reported on Saturday that in an email Trump spokesperson Jessica Ditto stated that neither the president-elect nor any members of his transition team would meet Tsai.

Taiwan leader Tsai Ing-wen exits the Omni Houston Hotel during a transit stop enroute to Central America, in Houston, Texas, US, January 7, 2017. /Reuters Photo

Tsai arrived in Houston, Texas on Saturday for a transit stop on her way to Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala and El Salvador.

However, there has been speculation over the visit to Nicaragua. Tsai is scheduled to meet with the heads of state in three of the four host countries, but not Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega. China and Nicaragua halted their diplomatic relationship in November 1990, after the latter established a diplomatic relationship with Taiwan.

US President-elect Donald Trump answers questions from reporters accompanied by wife Melania at a New Year's Eve party on December 31, 2016 at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida. /CFP Photo

Meanwhile, President-elect Trump seemed unaware that the Taiwan leader was due to make a transit stop in the US. When he was asked on New Year’s Eve about the possibility of a face-to-face meeting with Tsai, he told reporters that no one had mentioned Tsai’s visit to him.

“I’m not meeting with anybody until after January 20 (date he takes office), because it’s a little bit inappropriate from a protocol standpoint. But we’ll see,” said Trump.

A pedestrian's view of Taiwan. /CFP Photo

The president-elect broke protocol when he talked on the phone with Tsai Ing-wen on December 2. No US president or president-elect had spoken to a Taiwan leader since 1979, when China and the US formally established diplomatic ties and the US recognized the one-China Policy.

China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi described Trump’s call with Tsai as a “petty action” by Taiwan.

“The one-China principle is the cornerstone of the healthy development of Sino-US relations, and we do not want any interference or destruction of this political foundation,” he said in early December.

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