By Oyintari Ben
Tsai Ing-wen, the President of Taiwan, will meet with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in the United States early next month to avoid upsetting China.
The Financial Times reported that McCarthy had previously stated his desire to visit Taiwan if elected speaker. Fox News Digital said in January that the Pentagon was getting ready for the California Republican’s trip to Taipei later this year.
Tsai and McCarthy have decided to meet in California at the beginning of April when the Taiwanese leader travels to Central America, McCarthy’s home state, and New York due to the deteriorating US-China relations.
McCarthy’s team has been informed of “some intelligence about what the Chinese Communist Party is up to recently and the kinds of dangers they pose,” a senior Taiwanese source told the media, adding that China is “not in a good situation right now.”
Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan in August of last year for the first time in 25 years, which prompted China to issue several warnings; including conducting live-fire military drills close to the island and alleging that the US was employing “dirty tricks” with the visit.
Beijing issued a warning to McCarthy at the end of January asking him not to replicate Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan, claiming that doing so would go against long-standing US policy that maintains there is only “one China.”
An ongoing territorial dispute exists between China and Taiwan.
China’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said: “We urge certain persons in the U.S. to abide by the one-China principle sincerely.” She added that the US should “avoid doing anything that breaches the basic principles in international relations.”
