Taiwan’s president set off on a mission on Saturday to shore up relations with some of his island democracy’s shrinking band of diplomatic allies: three tiny Pacific Island nations that have taken an outsize importance in Taiwan’s struggle against Chinese efforts to push it off the international stage.

Taiwan's president Lai Ching-te arrived Saturday in Hawaii to begin a two-day transit in the U.S. as part of a trip to the South Pacific, his first since assuming office. He was greeted at a Honolulu hotel by cheering supporters who put festive leis around his neck.

Taiwan President Lai Ching-te will leave Saturday on a week-long tour of the Pacific that includes a stopover in Hawaii, which has ignited fiery threats from Beijing.