US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy hosted Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen at a high-level meeting on US soil on Wednesday, noting that she is “a great friend of the United States,” which will probably upset China.
More than a dozen Democratic and Republican legislators accompanied McCarthy at the meeting held at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California, against the backdrop of tensions between the United States and China.
Members of Congress rose to greet the Taiwanese president at a long table set with flower arrangements. The formal details of the meeting, and the high rank of some of those present, threatened to conflict with China’s position that any interaction between US and Taiwanese officials is a challenge to China’s claim to sovereignty over the island.
McCarthy said he wanted the Taiwanese president to see that “this is a bipartisan meeting of members of Congress,” not one particular political party.
“We will continue to find ways for the people of the United States and Taiwan to work together to promote economic freedom, democracy, peace and stability in Asia,” said the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
The United States severed official relations with Taiwan in 1979 while establishing diplomatic relations with the Beijing government. The United States recognizes the “one China” policy in which Beijing claims Taiwan, but does not support China’s claim to the island and remains Taiwan’s main provider of military and defense aid.
For Tsai, it was the most delicate stop on a week-long tour aimed at strengthening alliances with the United States and Central America. No speaker of the lower house had met a Taiwanese president on US soil since the United States severed diplomatic relations.
China has reacted to other trips to the United States by Taiwanese presidents and previous visits to Taiwan by high-ranking US officials with displays of military might.
The Chinese responded to a visit by then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan in August last year with the largest live ammunition exercises in decades, even launching a missile on the island.
