US Republican McCarthy receives Taiwanese President
US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said he will meet Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen in California amid stern warnings from China.Tsai, who stopped in the United States after returning from Central America, will meet with McCarthy Wednesday at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, just outside of Los Angeles, McCartney's office said Monday.
US media reported that around 20 US lawmakers planned to accompany the speaker to the meeting. McCarthy is the longest-serving Republican representative, second only to the US presidency.Chinese embassy chargé d'affaires in Washington Xu Xueyuan said last week that Washington risks a "serious confrontation" whether US leaders visit Taiwan or vice versa.
"The US keeps saying that transit is not a visit and that there are exceptional cases, but we shouldn't use past mistakes as an excuse to repeat them today," she said.Xu urged Washington "not to play with fire again on the Taiwan issue," referring to last year's visit to Taipei by former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
The Taiwanese leader arrived in New York ahead of her Central America swing on Wednesday. The move sparked anger in China, and Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning expressed strong opposition to any form of official interaction between the US and the self-governing island.China has sovereignty over Taiwan. The US does not recognize Taiwan as a country and officially supports the "One China" policy, but regularly violates its own principles. The island has become China's most sensitive territorial issue and a major point of contention with Washington.
Washington continues to anger Beijing by siding with Taipei's secessionist government, conducting frequent military missions across the island, and serving as its largest arms supplier.Former spokeswoman Pelosi's visit to Taipei infuriated China at the time, prompting it to conduct its largest-ever military drills around the island.And on Friday, a number of Chinese planes conducted combat readiness patrols over the Taiwan Strait. Taiwan's defense ministry accused China of creating tension in the region and condemned the alleged drills as "irrational acts."
