Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen delivered a dire warning that “democracy is under threat” as she met with US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Wednesday in California, a highly anticipated event that marked a show of democratic solidarity in defiance of threats from China.
Tsai gathered with McCarthy and a bipartisan group of US lawmakers at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California’s Simi Valley. The landmark meeting is the second time Tsai has met with an American lawmaker of that rank in the space of a year, following a visit from then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan in August. Tsai is also the first president of Taiwan to meet with a US House speaker on American soil.
“It is no secret that today the peace we have maintained and the democracy which (we) have worked hard to build are facing unprecedented challenges,” Tsai said in remarks alongside McCarthy. “We once again find ourselves in a world where democracy is under threat and the urgency of keeping the beacon of freedom shining cannot be understated.”
he meeting gave both Tsai and McCarthy a prominent platform to highlight US-Taiwan ties.
“The friendship between the people of Taiwan and America is a matter of profound importance to the free world. It is critical to maintain economic freedom, peace and regional stability,” McCarthy said.
“We’re stronger when we are together,” Tsai said. “In our efforts to protect our way of life, Taiwan is grateful to have the United States by our side.”
The meeting prompted an angry statement from Beijing, with a spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry saying that “China firmly opposes and strongly condemns it.”
“In response to the egregiously wrong action taken by the United States and Taiwan, China will take strong and resolute measures to defend our sovereignty and territorial integrity,” the statement added, urging the US to “stop containing China by exploiting the Taiwan issue” and “not go further down the wrong and dangerous path.”
House Foreign Affairs Chairman Michael McCaul announced Wednesday night that he had led a bipartisan delegation to Taiwan to meet business leaders and government officials.
Earlier Wednesday, ahead of the meeting between Tsai and McCarthy, China dispatched several maritime vessels near Taiwan’s coast.
On Wednesday morning local time, Beijing sent a “large scale patrol and rescue vessel” to the central and northern Taiwan Strait for a three-day “joint patrol and inspection” operation, China’s Fujian Maritime Safety Administration said in a statement. On Wednesday evening, Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said it had tracked a Chinese aircraft carrier group, led by the carrier Shandong, passing through waters southeast of Taiwan for training in the Western Pacific.
At a news conference following his meeting with Taiwan’s president, McCarthy indicated that China won’t dictate who he speaks with or where he goes, but said it’s “not our intention to escalate” tensions with Beijing.
Asked what his message is to China amid threats of retaliation over the meeting, McCarthy said, “I am the speaker of the House. There’s no place that China is going to tell me where I can go or who I can speak to.” He also said, “there’s no need for retaliation.”
McCarthy said, “No, it is not our intention to escalate,” when asked if he is concerned that the meeting would escalate tensions with Beijing.
The Defense Department has not sent any additional assets to the Indo-Pacific region in preparation for any aggressive response by China, a Pentagon spokesperson told reporters Wednesday.
In response to Pelosi’s visit last summer, Beijing launched extensive military drills around the democratic, self-governing island and suspended several lines of communication with Washington – raising concerns over the response to Tsai’s sit-down with McCarthy on Wednesday, even though this meeting took place in the US.
Tsai’s delegation made a planned stopover in California following official visits to Taiwan’s diplomatic allies Guatemala and Belize – part of a 10-day tour to shore up Taipei’s overseas relationships amid increasing pressure from Beijing.
China’s Consulate General in Los Angeles condemned the anticipated meeting with McCarthy as “not conducive to regional peace, security and stability,” warning it would “undermine the political foundation” of China-US relations.
“We will closely follow the development of the situation and resolutely safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity,” the consulate said in a Monday statement – one of multiple condemnations from Chinese officials in recent weeks as reports of the meeting emerged.
China’s Communist Party claims the self-governing democracy as its own despite never having controlled it, and has vowed to take the island, by force if necessary.
Tsai struck a defiant tone when setting out on her international tour late last month, telling reporters that “external pressure” wouldn’t stop Taiwan from connecting with the world and like-minded democracies.
On Tuesday, the island’s foreign ministry called repeated Chinese criticisms of her travel “increasingly absurd and unreasonable.”
“Taiwan will not back down, and friends in the US who support Taiwan and Taiwan-US relations will not back down either. Democratic partners will only become more united and have more frequent exchanges,” the statement said.
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