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 has arrived in Hawaii for a two-day transit in the U.S. as part of a trip to the South Pacific.

China urged the United States on Friday to exercise the "utmost caution" on relations with democratically-governed Taiwan, ahead of a sensitive trip its President Lai Ching-te starts this week to both Hawaii and Guam,

Lai Ching-te is visiting Pacific nations of Tuvalu, Palau and the Marshall Islands as well as US territories of Hawaii and Guam

Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te will stop over in Hawaii and Guam during his trip to the South Pacific, drawing criticism from China. Lai is to leave Taiwan on Saturday on a weeklong trip to visit the Marshall Islands,