China vowed retaliation against Taiwan after a meeting between the speaker of the US House of Representatives and the island’s president, saying on Thursday that Washington was on a “misguided and dangerous path.”
Kevin McCarthy hosted Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen on Wednesday in a show of US support for the autonomous island, which China claims as its own, along with a bipartisan delegation of more than a dozen US lawmakers.
The Biden administration maintains that there is nothing provocative about Tsai’s visit, which is the last of a half dozen to the US. However, it comes as relations between Washington and Beijing have fallen to record lows, with US support for Taiwan becoming one of the most important. the main points of difference between the two powers.
But the formal trappings of the meeting and the high ranking of some of the elected officials in the congressional delegation could lead China to view it as an escalation. No speaker is known to have met a Taiwanese president on US soil since the United States severed formal diplomatic relations in 1979.
In response to the meeting, Beijing said it would take “resolute and forceful measures to uphold national sovereignty and territorial integrity,” in a statement issued early Thursday by the Foreign Ministry.
He urged the United States “to no longer walk down a wrong and dangerous path.”
In December, China’s military sent 71 planes and seven ships toward Taiwan in a 24-hour show of force targeting the self-governing island after China expressed anger over Taiwan-related provisions in an annual government spending bill. United States defense. China’s military pressure campaign on Taiwan has intensified in recent years, with the Communist Party sending planes or ships to the island almost daily.
But as of Thursday afternoon, there were no obvious signs of a full-scale military response.
“We will take strong measures to punish the ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist forces and their actions, and resolutely safeguard our country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” a statement from the Taiwan Affairs Office said Thursday morning. of China, referring to Tsai and her political party as separatists.
The Chinese ships took part in a three-day joint patrol and inspection operation in the Taiwan Strait, state media said Thursday morning. The Fujian Maritime Safety Administration said its ship, the Haixun 06, would inspect cargo ships and others in the waters between Taiwan and China as part of the operation.
Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense said late Wednesday that it had tracked China’s aircraft carrier Shandong passing southeast of Taiwan through the Bashi Strait. On Thursday morning, it tracked three People’s Liberation Army navy ships and a fighter plane in the area around the island.
US congressional visits to Taiwan have increased in frequency in the past year, and the American Institute in Taipei, the de facto embassy, announced the arrival of another delegation on Thursday. The head of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Michael McCaul of Texas, is leading a delegation of eight other lawmakers for a three-day visit to discuss regional security and trade, according to an AIT statement.
In their meeting on Wednesday, Tsai and McCarthy spoke cautiously to avoid an unnecessary escalation of tensions with Beijing. Standing side by side at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California, the two acknowledged China’s threats against the island’s government.
“America’s support for the people of Taiwan will continue to be resolute, unwavering and bipartisan,” McCarthy said at a subsequent press conference. He also said that the ties between the United States and Taiwan are stronger than at any time in his life.
Tsai said the “unwavering support assures the people of Taiwan that we are not isolated.”
More than a dozen Democratic and Republican lawmakers, including the House’s third-ranking Democrat, joined the meeting.
Tsai said she and McCarthy discussed the importance of Taiwan’s self-defense, fostering strong economic and trade ties, and supporting the island’s government’s ability to engage in the international community.
But he also warned: “It is no secret that today the peace we have kept and the democracy we have worked hard to build face unprecedented challenges.”
“Once again we find ourselves in a world where democracy is under threat and the urgency of keeping the beacon of freedom shining cannot be underestimated,” he said.
The United States severed official ties with Taiwan in 1979 while formally establishing diplomatic relations with the Beijing government. As part of its recognition of China, the US “One China” policy acknowledges that Beijing claims Taiwan, but does not support China’s claim, and the US remains Taiwan’s main provider of military and defense assistance.
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