President Lai Ching-te makes a historic stopover in the United States, passing through the state of Hawaii on his way to visit Taiwan's three diplomatic allies in the Pacific region.
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00:00A warm Hawaiian welcome for a first-time visitor.
00:05Taiwan's President Lai Ching-de is in the U.S. to shore up ties on the eve of a change
00:10in its administration.
00:12Hawaii, the first stop of a six-day diplomatic blitz across the Pacific, where Lai will be
00:20looking to his friends to help counter aggression from neighboring China, which claims Taiwan
00:25as part of its territory and threatens to take by force.
00:28Peace is priceless and war has no winner.
00:34We have to fight, fight together to prevent war.
00:43Taiwan relies on U.S. backing to help maintain its delicate status quo.
00:47The self-ruled island nation, unrecognized by most of the international community, including
00:52the U.S., which, regardless, is friendly with Taiwan, supplies it with the weapons it needs
00:57to defend itself from China's threat.
01:02In Hawaii, Lai hopes to maintain this arrangement as the presidency switches to Donald Trump,
01:07who has said Taiwan should be paying more for its protection.
01:11If President Lai continues to emphasize the common objectives that Taiwan and the United
01:17States have in common and maybe point out that Taiwan has, in recent years, raised its
01:24defense spending as a percentage of GNP to show its commitment and continues to buy U.S.
01:29weapons, which the U.S. needs to do better in delivering, I think these are strong indicators
01:34of a desire to do all that Taiwan can for its own defense.
01:39On his whistle-stop tour of this state, Lai has been presenting Taiwan as a worthy partner
01:44in its own right, highlighting common ground between Pacific island communities.
01:50Buried inside this mountain is Hawaii's Emergency Operations Center, and it's from here that
01:55any response to a major disaster would be convened.
01:58Hawaii, like Taiwan, faces a range of natural disasters, like earthquakes.
02:03And Taiwan's president, Lai Ching-de, has come here to share his country's experiences
02:08and techniques in facing up to natural disasters.
02:12Lai's friends here have praised Taiwan for coming to Hawaii's aid when it faced devastating
02:16wildfires last year.
02:18A stark contrast, they say, to China's lack of response to the disaster.
02:23With his first foreign tour since assuming the presidency, Lai hopes to brush off China's
02:27claims and show that Taiwan is its own nation, looking beyond neighboring China and able
02:33to build on its existing ties with other countries across the Pacific.
02:38John Su and Rick Lowatt in Honolulu, Hawaii, for Taiwan Plus.