House Speaker Kevin McCarthy confirmed that he will meet Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen when she visits the United States in the coming weeks, according to a Bloomberg report.
The planned meeting, first reported by financial time a day earlier, it would take place in McCarthy’s home state of California, with the Taiwanese president en route to visit several of the autonomous island’s allies in Central America.
McCarthy told reporters Tuesday night that the meeting did not mean his plans to lead a congressional delegation to Taiwan later this year had been cancelled, according to bloomberg report.
“That has nothing to do with my trip, if I were to go to Taiwan,” McCarthy said, dismissing reports that the pair were trying to avoid angering Beijing during a tense time in US-China relations. “China can’t tell me where and when I can go,” she said.
McCarthy’s office has not responded to Radio Free Asia’s requests for comment about his plans to meet with Tsai.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi trip to taiwan in august sparked a break in relations between China and the United States, due to Beijing’s claims that the democratic island is its territory.
The relationship appeared to be on the mend, with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken scheduled to visit Beijing last month. But that trip was “postponed” at the last minute after US authorities discovered what they said was a chinese spy balloon in US airspace.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning said on Wednesday that Beijing was “gravely concerned” by any meeting between McCarthy and Tsai and had communicated with US officials.
“Taiwan is part of the sacred territory of the People’s Republic of China,” Mao told a news conference. “I must emphasize that China strongly opposes any form of official interaction between the US and the Taiwan region, strongly opposes any visit by ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist leaders to the US with any name and any pretext”.
