The Republican Kevin McCarthy, leader of the House of Representatives of the United States, meets this Wednesday in California with the president of Taiwan, Tsai Ing-wen, despite repeated threats from China.
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Tsai arrived in Los Angeles on Tuesday after a Central American diplomatic tour for a meeting with McCarthy Beijing “strongly opposes”Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning stressed on Monday.
The dispatch warned that the country “will firmly defend its national sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
China regards the democratic and self-ruled island as a rogue province that is part of its territory, and says it is willing to retake it even by force if necessary.
Under the principle of “One China”, Beijing does not allow any country to have diplomatic ties with them and with the Taiwanese at the same time. Only 13 countries in the world recognize Taiwan.
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The United States has long maintained a “strategic ambiguity” on the issue, a doctrine aimed at dissuading China from invading Taiwan and preventing the island’s leaders from taunting Beijing with a declaration of independence.
China warns of ‘serious confrontation’
McCarthy originally planned to follow the example of his predecessor in office, Democrat Nancy Pelosi, who visited Taiwan in August last year. The meeting then provoked the ire of China, which responded with the largest military maneuvers in its history around the island.
McCarthy ultimately chose to meet with Tsai Ing-wen and several congressional representatives at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in a Los Angeles suburb.
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However, Xu Xueyuan, charge d’affaires of the Chinese embassy in the United States, told reporters last week that Washington risked a “serious confrontation” regardless of whether US leaders visited Taiwan or the other way around.
This week the Chinese consulate in Los Angeles said in a statement that the meeting between McCarthy and Tsai would undermine “the political foundations of China-US relations.”
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The government of Democratic President Joe Biden has said that the Taiwanese leader is “in transit” and He denies that it is an official visit. In this sense, Washington asked Beijing not to use the meeting as a “pretext” to “react aggressively.”
The Tsai scale It comes at a time when China has stepped up military, economic and diplomatic pressure on autonomous democracy led by the president since 2016.
The president, who ends her term next year, wants to convey the message that Taiwan is not diplomatically isolated.
AFP
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