TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) – China vowed to retaliate against Taiwan on Thursday after a meeting between the speaker of the US House of Representatives and the island’s president, saying the US was on a “wrong and dangerous path.”
Spokesman Kevin McCarthy welcomed Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen on Wednesday with a bipartisan delegation of a dozen US lawmakers at a demonstration of US support for an autonomous island China claims to be its own.
The Biden administration insists there is nothing provocative about Tsai’s visit. But US-China relations are at an all-time low, and US support for Taiwan has become one of the main differences between the two powers.
But the official trappings of the conference and the senior ranks of some elected officials in the parliamentary delegation could cause China to see it as an escalation. Since the United States severed diplomatic ties with Taiwan in 1979, no speaker in the United States is known to have met with a Taiwanese president.
“We find ourselves once again in a world where democracy is threatened and the urgency to keep freedom burning cannot be underestimated. McCall was less cautious when he arrived in Taiwan.
“In my opinion, being here signals the United States to support Taiwan, to strengthen Taiwan, and to signal the CCP to reconsider aggression against Taiwan,” he said.
The group is scheduled to meet with President Tsai on Saturday to discuss arms shipments to Taiwan, much of which has been delayed, he said.
The United States cut diplomatic ties with Taiwan in her 1979 and formally established diplomatic ties with the Beijing government. As part of China’s acknowledgment, the United States has agreed to a “one China” policy, recognizes China’s claims to Taiwan but does not support China’s claims, and the United States remains a major provider of military and defense support to Taiwan. is. Washington has also followed a policy of strategic ambiguity by not explicitly stating whether it will support Taiwan in a conflict with China.
In Taiwan, Tsai’s visit received little attention, though his fellow politicians listened intently.
Ko Wenji, a former mayor of Taipei City and believed to have presidential ambitions, said he welcomed exchanges between Taiwan and international leaders.
“Taiwan wants a larger space to operate globally, and the mainland should not be upset about it.
Kuomintang opposition lawmaker Johnny Chen said the meeting between Tsai and McCarthy fell within the scope of the “One China” policy. This means that while Congress is relatively free to support Taiwan, the White House said local media is more restricted. In August, then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi traveled to Taiwan to meet President Tsai. China responded with the largest live-fire drill in decades, including firing missiles over the island.
Taiwan and China separated after her civil war in 1949 and are linked by billions of dollars in trade and investment, but no formal relationship.
