Kevin McCarthy, Republican US House Speaker confirmed he would meet Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen in California on Wednesday, fighting alarming warnings from China that he would be “playing with fire.” Tsai is stopping over in the United States en route to Central America, where she has met the leaders of Guatemala and is visiting Belize before meeting with McCarthy.
His office said on Monday the “bipartisan” meeting will take place at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, just outside Los Angeles. China has warned the United States over Tsai’s trip and in August brought out significant military drills around the island of Taiwan, a self-governing democracy it claims as part of its territory.
McCarthy, the top Republican in Congress who as House speaker is second in line to the presidency after the vice president, had earlier pledged to follow Democrat Nancy Pelosi, whom he succeeded as a speaker, by traveling to Taiwan.
The meeting in his home state of California had been considered as a middle ground that would avoid outraging tensions with China. But Xu Xueyuan, the charge d’affaires of China’s embassy in Washington, told reporters last week Washington risked “serious confrontation” no matter whether US leaders visited Taiwan or the reverse.
The US keeps saying that transit is not a visit and that there are precedents, but we should not use past mistakes as excuses for repeating them today,.
Xu Xueyuan said.
She urged Washington not to repeat playing with fire on the Taiwan question, indicating among other things last year’s visit to Taiwan by Pelosi. After arriving in New York last Wednesday, Tsai was welcomed by flag-waving Taiwanese expatriates as she addressed a banquet.
We have demonstrated a firm will and resolve to defend ourselves, that we are capable of managing risk with calm and composure and that we have the ability to maintain regional peace and stability.”
Tsai told
Laura Rosenberger, who heads the American Institute in Taiwan, the de facto embassy in the absence of diplomatic relations, greeted Tsai in New York but the State Department said it did not expect officials to meet her.
China claims the democratic island as part of its territory to be recaptured one day and, under its “One China” principle, no nation may maintain official ties with both China and Taiwan. Pelosi’s visit last year activated an angry response from China, with the Chinese military running drills at an unusual scale around the island.
The United States remains Taiwan’s most important ally despite switching its diplomatic recognition to China in 1979. Analysts told AFP the US stopover was coming at a key time, with China having built up military, economic, and diplomatic pressure on Taiwan since Tsai came to power in 2016.
The loss of official relations with third countries will be offset by a deepening of Taiwan’s unofficial relations.”
James Lee-a researcher on US-Taiwan relations at Academia Sinica said
US media reported that around 20 US lawmakers planned to accompany the speaker to the meeting in California.
