Lai's U.S. transit itinerary shows joint resolve to contain China: Academic

Taipei, Dec. 1 (CNA) The United States arranging President Lai Ching-te's (賴清德) visit to the USS Arizona Memorial, at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Hawaii demonstrates the strong determination of the U.S. and Taiwan to work together to contain China, a scholar said Sunday (Taipei time).

Yeh Yao-yuan (葉耀元), endowed chair and professor of International Studies at the University of St. Thomas, Houston, made the remarks after Lai arrived in Hawaii on Saturday (local time) for a two-day transit in the U.S. as part of his first overseas trip to diplomatic allies in the South Pacific since taking office.

Lai's itinerary on Saturday includes visits to Bishop Museum, the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency and the USS Arizona Memorial.

In the past, when Taiwan's heads of state visited Taipei's diplomatic allies in the Pacific, they would stop over in Hawaii and Guam, Yeh said, adding that Lai's transit itinerary this time is also in line with past practice, which shows the overall good interaction between the Lai administration and the U.S.

Commenting on the visit to Bishop Museum, the premier natural and cultural history institution in the Pacific, Ye said the U.S. always uses its Indo-Pacific strategy to link Taiwan, the U.S. and several Pacific Rim regions.

From the perspective of the U.S., the Pacific countries are in the same boat. Inviting Lai to visit Bishop Museum highlights the connection between the U.S. and Taiwan, and Taiwan and Pacific Rim countries, he added.

Yeh indicated the USS Arizona sank during the Japanese attack on the naval base at Pearl Harbor and the visit to the USS Arizona Memorial has a strong strategic significance for the U.S.

Since the Pearl Harbor attack in 1941, the U.S. does not want any country to approach its territory from the sea, which has been U.S. core strategic thinking since World War II and bolstered its determination to stick to the first island chain, the first chain of major Pacific archipelagos stretching out from the East Asian continental mainland coast, according to Yeh.

China has continued its maritime expansion in recent years and has become the greatest threat to the national security of the U.S. As such, Lai's visit to the USS Arizona Memorial manifests the strong determination of the U.S. and Taiwan to make joint efforts to deter China, Yeh added.

In addition, Chen Fang-yu (陳方隅), assistant professor of the Department of Political Science at Soochow University, said that the visit to Bishop Museum has symbolic significance for Austronesian cultural exchanges, and is also one of Taiwan's future priorities for promoting public diplomacy.