Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen’s talks this week with members of Congress will continue following Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s historic meeting with the head of the self-governing island Wednesday in California.
House Foreign Affairs Chairman Michael McCaul, along with a bipartisan delegation of lawmakers, is scheduled to meet with Tsai on Thursday in Taiwan.
“We are confronting a generational threat from the Chinese Communist Party, and the Indo-Pacific theater is our first line of defense against their encroachment. That’s why now, more than ever, it’s critical the United States strengthen relationships with our allies and partners in the region,” McCaul said in a statement.
Even before Tsai and McCarthy, along with as many as 17 other U.S. lawmakers, held talks Wednesday, Tsai’s U.S. transit stop drew advance criticism from China, which considers the island a part of the country.
Mao Ning, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, said Tuesday, “China firmly opposes the U.S. arrangement for (Taiwanese President) Tsai Ing-wen’s transit visit and her meeting with House Speaker (Kevin) McCarthy, the No.3 person in the U.S. government. This act seriously violates the one-China principle.”
According to that principle, China considers the issue of Taiwanese sovereignty an internal matter. Under U.S. policy, Washington recognizes Beijing as the sole legal government of China. However the U.S. does not recognize Beijing’s sovereignty over Taiwan and has never agreed to refrain from meeting with Taiwanese leaders.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries met with Tsai as she transited through New York last week. In a statement noting that the meeting did not deviate from the longstanding unofficial relationship between the U.S. and Taiwan, Jeffries said, “We had a very productive conversation about the mutual security and economic interests between America and Taiwan. We also discussed our shared commitment to democracy and freedom.”
Last year, then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and a delegation of five House Democrats visited Taiwan for meetings with Taiwanese officials. The visit increased tensions in the region as China launched military exercises in the area around Taiwan and suspended or canceled some lines of military cooperation with the United States.
In addition to a three-day trip to Taiwan, McCaul and the delegation are also set to visit Japan and South Korea.