Veteran US journalist: Lai is an enemy of the US

Martin Sieff, former senior correspondent for the Washington Times and Pulitzer Prize nominee for international reporting, told China Daily in a recent interview that Taiwan politician Lai Ching-te's transit through the United States is very irresponsible and inflammatory, and that Lai is not a friend but an enemy of the US.

"It's fascinating that it is Paraguay he is visiting, an extremely unimportant, small, landlocked country of no strategic significance whatsoever to Taiwan," Sieff said. "The trip to Paraguay is being used simply as an excuse to go to the United States."

The US veteran journalist said that Lai is reckless and his ill-considered action could bring hugely negative consequences to Taiwan residents. The pro-independence extremist only saw what he wanted to see from a US propaganda that Washington would limitlessly support Taiwan, said Sieff. "That is not going to happen."

Sieff said that Lai will pull the US into a very fatal trap. "Lai is not a friend of the United States. He is an enemy of the United States," Sieff said.

Beijing has rightly warned the US for agreeing to Lai's stops over on its territory. Unfortunately, both Republicans and Democrats were insecure in their masculinity and they posture before the US public, according to Sieff.

The US should return back to the great tradition of "dignity, restraint, responsibility, honoring one's previous policies, honoring one's previous commitments, honoring one's words", said Sieff.

"We have lost that great tradition. We need to get it back," he said.