US welcomes island’s leader to Houston facility in snub of Beijing
Nikkei Asian Review
By: Kensaku Ihara
Date: August 20, 2018
Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen in the Mission Control Center of NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, on Aug. 19. Tsai posted this photo to her personal Facebook account as part of her tour of the Americas.
TAIPEI — Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen toured NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, on Sunday local time, becoming the island’s first sitting leader to set foot in an American government facility in the U.S.
The itinerary included the Mission Control Center and other facilities, Taiwan’s Central News Agency reported. Tsai stopped in Houston on the way home from a roughly weeklong tour of Central and South America.
Tsai also visited the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library near Los Angeles at the start of her trip on Aug. 13, making a speech praising Reagan’s contributions to U.S.-Taiwan relations.
As a courtesy to China, the U.S. traditionally strictly limits media appearances by the Taiwanese president on American soil. But Washington has recently played up its ties with Taipei to curb Beijing amid rising tensions over trade and over influence in Asia.
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