Presidential Office rejects reports about speech for correspondents on Capitol Hill

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/07/05
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – During her stopover in the United States next week, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) will not visit Washington, D.C. and will not hold a speech on Capitol Hill, the Presidential Office said Friday (July 5), responding to Taiwanese media reports.

Website CM Media claimed earlier that during her July 11-22 trip to visit three Caribbean allies, Tsai would use her stopover in the U.S. to pay an unprecedented visit to Washington, D.C., where she would enter the Capitol and address the Foreign Correspondents Club to defend Taiwan and attack China.

The Presidential Office immediately denied the report, adding Tsai’s itinerary was still being arranged. Earlier reports said she would transit via New York City and Denver, Colorado.

Guesswork and mistaken reports were not helpful to Taiwan’s diplomacy, the Liberty Times quoted a presidential spokesman as saying. Visits were based on mutual trust and any progress on the itinerary would be announced at the appropriate time, the spokesman continued. He also lambasted the media for failing to check facts before going ahead with the publication about the alleged Tsai visit to Washington.    [FULL  STORY]