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07-04-2023
LOS ANGELES: US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy met Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen in California on Wednesday, becoming the most senior US figure to meet a Taiwanese leader on US soil since 1979 despite threats of retaliation from China, which claims self-ruled Taiwan as its own.
McCarthy, a Republican who through his House position is number three in the US leadership hierarchy, welcomed Tsai on Wednesday morning at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, near Los Angeles.
At the start of a meeting including other Republican and Democratic lawmakers, McCarthy called Tsai “a great friend to America” and added: “I am optimistic we will continue to find ways for the people of America and Taiwan to work together to promote economic freedom, democracy, peace and stability.”
Tsai thanked McCarthy for his hospitality, calling it warm, like the California sunshine, and also thanked the rest of the congressional delegation, saying: “I am so pleased.”
China staged war games around Taiwan last August following the visit to Taipei of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Taiwan’s defence ministry said a Chinese aircraft carrier group was in the waters off the island’s southeast coast ahead of the meeting between Tsai and McCarthy in California.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said there was nothing new about a Taiwanese president transiting through the US and Beijing should not use it as an excuse to take action or ratchet up tensions.
Supporters waving Taiwan flags and pro-Taiwan and Hong Kong banners chanted “Jiayou 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 a Taiwanese president on US soil since Washington switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979.
After McCarthy and Tsai went inside, a small plane flew over the library towing a pro-Beijing banner saying “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, who is on her first US stopover since 2019, although some analysts expect its reaction to being more moderate than that to Pelosi’s Taipei visit.
A meeting in California is seen as a potentially less provocative alternative to McCarthy visiting Taiwan, something he has said he hopes to do.
Taiwan’s defence ministry said the Chinese carrier group was headed for training in the Western Pacific and that Taiwanese naval and air forces and land-based radar systems closely monitored them.
It said the ships, led by the carrier Shandong, passed through the Bashi Channel separating Taiwan from the Philippines and then into waters to Taiwan’s southeast. (Int’l News Desk)
