USA trip despite warnings from China: Taiwan's President in California

Status: 04/06/2023 01:26 am

There has not been a meeting at this level on US territory since 1979: Taiwan’s President Tsai met with House Speaker McCarthy in California. This is a provocation for China.

Despite warnings from China, Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen has met with the senior US House of Representatives in California. The head of state met with Republican Kevin McCarthy at the Ronald Regan Presidential Library in the town of Simi Valley, northwest of Los Angeles.

As chairman of the Chamber of Congress, McCarthy is the third most important figure in the American state. There has not been a meeting at this level on US territory since 1979. Both pro-Beijing and pro-Taiwan protesters gathered in front of the building.

US Secretary of State: Meeting is private

Tsai visited New York last week before continuing on to Central America. The station in Los Angeles was the stopover on the way back. Foreign Minister Antony Blinken had previously stated that Tsai was in transit with stays in the United States that were private and unofficial in nature.

Blinken urged China not to escalate tensions over Tsai’s visit. “In plain language, this means that Beijing should not use the transit as a pretext for measures to escalate tensions,” he said in Brussels. Transits by high-ranking Taiwanese politicians are nothing new.

Apparently a Chinese unit off Taiwan’s coast

China’s Foreign Ministry has condemned Tsai’s meeting with McCarthy as “collusions” and announced it will take decisive action to protect national sovereignty and territorial integrity “in response to the grave mistakes,” state-run Xinhua news agency reported. With his actions, McCarthy “seriously broke with the commitment made by the USA to China on the Taiwan question”.

So far, there has been no increased Chinese military activity around Taiwan in response to Tsai’s visit, a spokeswoman for the US Department of Defense said. Nevertheless, the Ministry of Defense in Taipei announced that the Chinese formation around the aircraft carrier “Shandong” is off the south-east coast of the island.

USA is the most important ally

China sees a high-level meeting between US and Taiwan officials as a provocation. Taiwan has had an independent government since 1949, but China regards the democratic island as a breakaway territory that it wants to reunite with the mainland – if necessary by military force. The Chinese leadership responded to a visit by McCarthy’s predecessor, Democrat Nancy Pelosi, to Taiwan last August with military maneuvers lasting several days.

Beijing regards diplomatic relations between other countries and Taiwan as a violation of its one-China policy. The United States officially recognizes the government in Beijing as China’s representative, but is also an important ally of Taiwan.