US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy met with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen in California on Wednesday, becoming the most senior American figure to meet a Taiwanese leader on US soil since 1979 despite threats of retaliation from China. Claims self-ruled Taiwan as its own.
McCarthy, a Republican who is number three in the US leadership hierarchy through his House position, welcomed Tsai on Wednesday morning at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, near Los Angeles.
China staged war games around Taiwan after then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taipei last August, and Taiwan’s defense ministry said a Chinese aircraft carrier group was on its way to the island ahead of a meeting between Tsai and McCarthy in California. was in the waters off the southeast coast of
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said there was nothing new about Taiwan’s president passing through the US and Beijing should not use it as a pretext to take action or escalate tensions.
Supporters waving Taiwanese flags and pro-Taiwan and Hong Kong banners chant “Jiayu Taiwan” – the equivalent of “Go Taiwan” – in the Reagan Library parking lot ahead of Tsai and McCarthy’s arrival for the highest-level meeting for Taiwan’s president soil on the US since Washington transferred diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979.
After McCarthy and Tsai went inside, a small plane flew over the library carrying a pro-Beijing banner that read “One China! Taiwan is part of China!”
The meeting is sure to draw a strong reaction from Beijing, which considers Taiwan part of its territory and has vowed to bring it under its control by force if necessary.
China has repeatedly warned against a meeting between McCarthy and Tsai, on their first US stopover since 2019, although some analysts expect its response to be more moderate than Pelosi’s visit to Taipei.
A meeting in California is seen as a potentially less provocative alternative to McCarthy going to Taiwan, something he has said he hopes to do.
Chinese carrier group in the Pacific
Taiwan’s defense ministry said the Chinese carrier group was on its way to training in the western Pacific and was closely monitored by Taiwan’s navy and air force and land-based radar systems.
It said the ships, led by the carrier Shandong, passed through the Bashi Channel separating Taiwan from the Philippines and then into waters southeast of Taiwan.
China has sent its aircraft carriers to Taiwan before and at similar sensitive times. It has not yet commented on the carrier group, whose presence coincided with French President Emmanuel Macron’s arrival in Beijing.
In March last year, just hours before talks between the Chinese and US presidents were to take place, Shandong passed through the Taiwan Strait.
Tsai transited through New York last week on her way to Central America to visit two of Taiwan’s few remaining diplomatic partners, Guatemala and Belize.
Washington called on China not to escalate, portraying Tsai’s stay as routine and a normal part of its informal ties with Taiwan.
However, the US, which is bound by law to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself, has stepped up talks with Taipei in recent years as Beijing’s pressure on the island has increased.
At a press conference in Brussels, Blinken said there was nothing new in Tsai’s transit through the US and that such stops were “private” and “unofficial”.
He added, “Beijing should not use transit as an excuse to take any action to escalate tensions in order to push it to change the status quo.”
Xu Zeyuan, charge d’affaires at China’s Washington embassy, said last week that McCarthy’s meeting with Tsai “could lead to another serious confrontation in Sino-US relations.” On Tuesday, China’s foreign ministry said it would “closely monitor” the meeting and “firmly defend” Chinese sovereignty.
Since Pelosi’s visit, US-Chinese relations have deteriorated to the worst level since 1979.
February saw the dramatic shooting down of a Chinese spy balloon that drifted over US territory, and fears have only grown that Beijing may eventually be emboldened by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to move militarily against Taiwan.
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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)