According to protocol, the third most powerful politician in the USA, Kevin McCarthy, met the Taiwanese President. China announces a determined response.
China has sharply criticized Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen’s meeting with US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and announced a “firm” response. China will respond to “the grave error of the US-Taiwan collusion” with “effective and decisive measures” to protect national sovereignty and territorial integrity, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Thursday, according to the state news agency Xinhua.
US House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy met Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen in California on Wednesday. The two met Wednesday at the Ronald Regan Presidential Library in the town of Simi Valley, northwest of Los Angeles. The meeting took place at a stopover made by Tsai on her way back from her Central American trip. The Chinese government had already criticized the planned meeting in advance and warned of a possible meeting.
The meeting in the US state of California was a “grave violation of the one-China policy,” the State Department said. Part of the so-called One China policy is to recognize Beijing as the sole representative of China. Since the split between mainland China and Taiwan in 1949, Beijing has viewed the island as a breakaway territory that it wants to reunite with the mainland – if necessary using military force.
The Taiwan issue is “a red line that must not be crossed in China-US relations,” the State Department added.
Blink appeals to Beijing
McCarthy, a Republican, is number three in the United States, after the President and Vice President. China sees a high-level meeting between US and Taiwan officials as a provocation. Taiwan has had an independent government since 1949, but China considers the democratic island part of its national territory. The Chinese leadership responded to a visit by McCarthy’s predecessor, Democrat Nancy Pelosi, to Taiwan last August with military maneuvers lasting several days. So far, there has been no increased Chinese military activity around Taiwan in response to Tsai’s visit, a US Defense Department spokeswoman said at a news conference on Wednesday.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on China not to further fuel tensions between the two countries because of Tsai’s stopover in the United States. “In plain language, this means that Beijing should not use the transit as a pretext for measures to exacerbate tensions (…),” Blinken said in Brussels on Wednesday. Transits by high-ranking Taiwanese politicians are nothing new. “They are private, they are unofficial.” This also applies to corresponding meetings.
Before the meeting, China had begun military maneuvers. Beijing demonstrated its claims with a naval formation.
