President of Taiwan makes a challenging overseas journey, halting in New York and Los Angeles.

The president has already done so seven times, like all her predecessors in Taiwan since 1990. And each time there have been protests from Beijing, including a naval maneuver in the Taiwan Straits with live ammunition in the mid-1990s. But Tsai Ing-wen’s eighth visit to the United States has the potential to spark a stronger reaction. Although the Americans emphasize, as in the past, that the stay of the head of government of the breakaway island republic claimed by China is no more than a transit.