China on Wednesday threatened to take “decisive countermeasures” if Taiwanese leader Tsai Ing-wen meets with US Congress Speaker Kevin McCarthy in the US state of California.
The spokeswoman for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the Chinese State Council, Zhu Fenglian, denounced Tsai’s plan to stop over in the United States on a tour of Taipei’s diplomatic allies in Central America at a press conference, and demanded that no American official meet with her.
“We are strongly against [um encontro] and we will take resolute countermeasures if that happens.”said Zhu.
The US should “refrain from organizing visits during Tsai Ing-wen’s transit and even contact with US authorities, and take concrete actions in the context of the commitment not to support Taiwan’s independence,” the statement said. spokesman.
Visits during stopovers in the United States, on broader international trips by Taiwanese leaders, have been common for many years, senior US officials have previously argued.
During these unofficial visits, Tsai has already met members of Congress and the Taiwanese diaspora, and was received by the president of the American Institute in Taiwan, a non-profit organization run by the US government that maintains unofficial relations with Taipei.
Tsai saw her trip as an opportunity to showcase Taiwan’s commitment to democratic values on the global stage.
“I want to tell the whole world that a democratic Taiwan will resolutely protect the values of freedom and democracy and continue to be a force for good in the world,” the Taiwanese leader said before boarding the presidential plane. “External pressures will not prevent us from engaging in dialogue with the world,” he said.
Tsai will make a stopover in New York on March 30 before traveling on to Guatemala and Belize. On April 5, he will be in Los Angeles on his way back to Taiwan to meet McCarthy.
The scheduled meeting with McCarthy comes at a time of growing friction between Beijing and Washington, which remains Taiwan’s main ally and arms supplier.
In recent years, Chinese Air Force aircraft incursions into Taiwan’s airspace have intensified and, after former US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi traveled to Taiwan – marking the highest visit by the United States to the island in 25 year – last August, Beijing launched military exercises on an unprecedented scale, including rocket launches and the use of live fire.
China and Taiwan have been living as two autonomous regions since 1949, when the former Chinese nationalist government took refuge on the island after its civil war defeat against the communists. Beijing considers the island part of its territory and threatens violent reunification if Taipei formally declares independence.
McCarthy said he would meet Tsai when she is in the US and did not rule out the possibility of visiting Taiwan to support her.
Beijing sees official contact between the US and Taiwan as an incentive to make the island’s de facto independence permanent, something US leaders say they do not support.
Source: DN
