Taiwan hailed President Tsai Ing-wen’s unprecedented meeting with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on US soil as a “rare opportunity,” even as the move risks provoking renewed military tension around the island.
(Bloomberg) — Taiwan hailed President Tsai Ing-wen’s unprecedented meeting with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on US soil as a “rare opportunity,” even as the move risks provoking renewed military tension around the island.
Tsai will meet with McCarthy along with a bipartisan group of lawmakers at 10 a.m. local time Wednesday at the Reagan Library in Los Angeles, said Chang Tun-han, deputy secretary general of Taiwan’s presidential office. It’s the first time a Taiwanese leader will meet in the US with a House speaker, the third highest ranking government official, since the two sides cut ties more than four decades ago.
“It’s a rare opportunity for us to have a face-to-face meeting with a House speaker in the US,” Chang said to reporters aboard Tsai’s flight before her arrival in Los Angeles. “We believe the beam of democracy and freedom will shine like the California sunshine.”
Tsai is saving her most controversial meeting for the tail end of a 10-day trip that’s taken her to New York, Guatemala and Belize. China has threatened an unspecified response if she meets McCarthy, generating concern that Beijing may fire missiles and conduct military drills around Taiwan similar to what took place after Tsai met former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in Taipei last year.
Taipei has carefully planned Tsai’s itinerary to avoid triggering a strong military response from China, including by arranging to meet with McCarthy in the US rather than in Taiwan. “We seek pragmatic diplomacy in a steady manner,” Chang said, adding that previous Taiwanese leaders have all interacted with lawmakers, sometimes through phone calls. The White House has said Tsai’s transits are private and unofficial, and China shouldn’t take it as a pretext to overreact.
Taiwan said on Wednesday it detected 14 Chinese military aircraft and three navy vessels in the surrounding region over the past 24 hours as of 6 a.m. local time, according to Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense.
Separately, China’s large patrol and rescue vessel, the Haixun 06, led a formation of maritime enforcement ships in the north-central part of the Taiwan strait, state broadcaster China Central Television reported. The Haixun 06, a 5,000-ton class ship equipped with monitoring systems like optical tracking and radar telemetry, is the largest of its kind to be stationed at China’s southeastern coast.
In response to China’s maritime patrol, Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said the military has closely monitored the situation in the surrounding region and so far everything is normal. Taiwan’s Presidential Office separately said that Tsai has been following the regional situation, while emphasizing to Beijing that peace and stability across the strait and in the region were a shared responsibility.
See: Why Taiwan’s Status Risks Igniting a US-China Clash: QuickTake
At the meeting in the US on Wednesday, Tsai will face a difficult balancing act in seeking to engage US lawmakers while avoiding any moves that could be seen as unnecessarily provocative.
A group photo will take place at the Reagan Library before participants head to a closed-door meeting. Tsai and McCarthy are expected to give public remarks at around noon local time after the meeting, and then have lunch after the event wraps up at around 1:30 p.m., according to Chang. Later that day, Tsai is expected to have a dinner banquet with overseas Taiwanese, before returning to Taiwan on Thursday.
Other than McCarthy, Chang confirmed that Tsai met with top House Democrat Hakeem Jeffries on March 30 in New York. She also had a breakfast meeting with Republican senators Dan Sullivan, Joni Ernst, and Democrat Mark Kelly the following day before leaving the city, Chang said.
During those meetings, Chang said, Tsai thanked President Joe Biden and lawmakers from both parties for supporting Taiwan. Tsai said that Taiwan hoped to continue working with the US on security issues, and will keep playing the role of a responsible partner to maintain regional peace and stability with other nations, according to Chang.
Tsai also said Taiwan will continue to be a critical and reliable economic and trade partner, working with other nations to jointly build a more resilient global democratic supply chain, according to Chang.
–With assistance from Amanda Wang, Li Liu and Xiao Zibang.
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