Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen arrived in New York on Wednesday for a sensitive stopover even as China threatened to “resolutely fight back” if she met US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Before her arrival, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said China should not use Tsai’s transit in the US as a pretext to “step up any activity around the Taiwan strait”, reported Reuters.
Tsai is on her way to Guatemala and Belize, two of the few countries that recognise Taiwan diplomatically. Her stay in New York will last till Saturday and she will also visit Los Angeles on her way back from Central America to Taiwan. Although there is no official confirmation so far, Tsai Ing-wen is expected to meet McCarthy in California.
China has repeatedly warned US officials against meeting Tsai, considering talks between the two sides as showing support for the island’s aspirations to be seen as a separate country. China claims Taiwan as its own territory, despite the island being democratically ruled.
Before departing for the US, Tsai Ing-wen said “external pressure” will not deter Taiwan from engaging with the world. “We are calm and confident, will neither yield nor provoke. Taiwan will firmly walk on the road of freedom and democracy and go into the world. Although this road is rough, Taiwan is not alone,” Tsai was quoted by Reuters as saying.
The Taiwanese president’s visit to the States comes after then US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi paid a visit to the island in August last year. With that, she became the highest-ranking elected US official to visit Taiwan in over 25 years. Her visit was marked with increased Chinese military activity on the waters and in the airspace surrounding the island of Taiwan.
China had issued several warnings against Pelosi’s visit.
It made similar warnings against Tsai’s US visit. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokesperson Zhu Fenglian said in Beijing that if Tsai met with McCarthy, China would “definitely take measures to resolutely fight back”. Xu Xueyuan, charge d’affaires at China’s embassy in Washington, also said a meeting between Tsai and McCarthy “could lead to another serious confrontation in the China-US relationship.”
If Tsai meets McCarthy, it would be the first meeting on US soil between a House speaker and a Taiwanese leader — an idea that angers China.
Reuters quoted sources who said around 20 US lawmakers planned to accompany McCarthy for his meeting with Tsai. The meeting was originally set to take place at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library near Los Angeles, but the library has yet to confirm the meeting.
