Lai Ching-te’s stopovers in Hawaii, Guam indicate Taiwan-US alliance to counter China’s Belt and Road Initiative, says expert

Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te’s stopovers in Hawaii and Guam during his first overseas visit to Taiwan’s Pacific diplomatic allies have signalled a Taiwan-US alliance to counter China’s Belt and Road Initiative, Central News Agency (CNA) reported, citing a Taipei-based security expert.

Lai arrived in Hawaii on Saturday for a two-day stopover on his visit to Palau, Marshall Islands, and Tuvalu, and is due to make a stopover in Guam while on his return to Taiwan.

Speaking to CNA, Su Tzu-yun, a research fellow at Taiwan’s government-funded Institute for National Defense and Security Research (INDSR), said that Lai’s visit is set to “link” the first, the second and third island chains, CNA reported.

Su stated that Taiwan is located on the first island chain while Guam and Palau are along the second island chain and Hawaii is on the third island chain. She called three island chains strategically important for curbing China’s expansionism and especially the Belt and Road Initiative.

Su Tzu-yun explained that the first island chain is the “first line of defense” against Chinese expansionism and a critical maritime route for fuel, with Taiwan located at the center of this chain.

She said that since China is making deep-water harbors in the Solomon Islands and Peru and a space tracking station in Kiribati, making the second island chain aids efforts to defend the first island chain and is in the interest of the US and its allies, according to Central News Agency (CNA) report.

Meanwhile, open-source data has revealed that the George Washington Carrier Strike Group (CSG) is deployed in Yokosuka, Japan, while the Abraham Lincoln CSG is in Port Klang, Malaysia, and the USS Carl Vinson supercarrier is in the East Pacific.

When asked whether such deployments were made to deter China from overreacting to Lai’s stopover in the US state, Chieh Chung, a research fellow at the Association of Strategic Foresight, explained that they were aimed to deter China but unlikely linked to Lai’s travel.

Academics have said that there is a high possibility that China would be angry over Lai’s stopover in the US and would hold military exercises near Taiwan, in part to “set the ground rules” for US President-elect Donald Trump regarding Taiwan. Chieh stressed that it is unlikely as such a move could irritate Trump and would have a negative effect.

Chieh said that the move is likely aimed to warn China not to engage in any provocative behaviour in the Taiwan Strait in the run-up to January 20, when Donald Trump is scheduled to be inaugurated.

The first island chain is the archipelago comprising South Korea, the Ryukyu Islands, Taiwan, the Aleutian Islands, the Japanese archipelago, the Philippines and the Greater Sunda Islands, Central News Agency (CNA) reported.

The second island chain is the Mariana Islands, the Caroline Islands, Guam, Palau, Izu Islands, the Bonin Islands, and Halmahera Island. The third island chain is Hawaii, Alaska, US-governed Pacific Islands, Australia and New Zealand.