Taiwan’s government denied allegations that it had covered the costs of President Tsai Ing-wen’s high-profile welcome during her stopover last week in San Francisco, where she was escorted by police on Harley Davidson motorcycles.
During a San Francisco transit last Saturday after a weeklong Central America trip, President Tsai Ing-wen was escorted by 60 police officers on Harley Davidson bikes on her way to visit Twitter’s headquarters.
The bikes were part of Tsai’s high-level reception in the US, according to Taiwan’s government.
But in the end, the cost of the US police motorcade could fall to Taiwanese taxpayers, according to former Presidential Office Deputy Secretary-General Chih-chiang and ex-Kuomintang lawmaker Lin Yu-fang.
The pair has alleged that Taiwan’s government had paid for Tsai’s high-level welcome in San Francisco.
Asked for comment, Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Eleanor Wang said that the police escort had been arranged by the US side based on the principles of safety, comfort, convenience and dignity of the traveller.
It has been a longstanding practice for police motorcades to assist with the transporting of Taiwanese presidents who transit on American soil, and this reception is enabled by coordination between Taiwan’s representative offices in the US and the US State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service, she said.
Wang said that during President Tsai’s recent stopovers in Houston and San Francisco, local police forces arranged for motorcycle escort to ensure that Tsai’s visit was safe and smooth.
“Taiwan’s side did not pay for such arrangements,” she said.
Taiwan’s government thanks the US for high-level reception that shows it had placed a high level of importance on the president’s visit, a mark of strong cordial ties between the two countries, according to Wang.
