House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s meeting in California with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen drew objections from Beijing, which views it as support for the island’s independence.
April 5, 2023, 3:09 PM CET / Updated April 5, 2023, 10:50 PM CETBy Jennifer Jett, Alicia Victoria Lozano and Aarne Heikkila
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy met with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen in Southern California on Wednesday, promising unwavering support for Taiwan and drawing threats of retaliation from China.
Though the United States does not have official ties with Taiwan, a self-ruling democracy that Beijing claims as its territory, it is the island’s most important international backer and has been strengthening its support as Taiwan comes under growing pressure from China. McCarthy was the most senior U.S. official to meet a Taiwanese leader on U.S. soil in decades.
“I believe our bond is stronger now than at any time or point in my lifetime and of course, President Tsai is a great champion of that bond,” McCarthy, R-Calif., told reporters after the meeting at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif.
China views such contact between U.S. and Taiwanese officials as a violation of the one-China principle, under which Washington recognizes Beijing as the sole legitimate government of China while maintaining unofficial relations with Taipei.
On Thursday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry accused Tsai and McCarthy, the third most senior U.S. government official, of promoting Taiwan independence.
“In response to the seriously wrong acts of collusion between the United States and Taiwan, China will take resolute and effective measures to defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity,” it said in a statement.
The White House says that visits by high-level Taiwanese officials are routine and that China should not use Tsai’s travel through the U.S. as a “pretext” for greater aggression against Taiwan.
“Beijing should not use the transits as an excuse to take any actions to ratchet up tensions, to further push at changing the status quo,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday.
As of Thursday afternoon, Beijing had not announced any large-scale military drills of the kind it held after Nancy Pelosi, McCarthy’s predecessor, visited Taiwan last August. McCarthy said Wednesday that he could still make his own visit to Taiwan in the future.
Tsai, who was transiting through the U.S. after a trip to Guatemala and Belize, said it was fitting that she and McCarthy had come together at the library honoring Reagan, whose administration was instrumental in securing assurances between the U.S. and Taiwan in 1982.That continued support assures “the people of Taiwan that we are not isolated and we are not alone,” Tsai said, at a time of “unprecedented challenges” for both Taiwan and others.