‘Will resolutely defend territorial integrity,’ China says of Taiwan president’s meeting with US House speaker

By Riyaz ul Khaliq and Servet Gunerigok

ISTANBUL/WASHINGTON (AA) – China on Tuesday opposed a scheduled meeting between US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, saying Beijing will “resolutely defend” its territorial integrity.

“We urge the US to abide by the one-China principle and provisions in the three China-US joint communiqués, not to allow Tsai Ing-wen’s 'transit' trip to the US, and not to arrange for any meeting or contact between Tsai and US political figures and officials,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said.

"The Chinese side will closely monitor the situation as it develops and resolutely defend our sovereignty and territorial integrity," Mao told reporters, according to a transcript of her news briefing in Beijing, which was later posted on the ministry's official website.

China regards Taiwan as a "breakaway province," while Taipei has insisted on independence since 1949. Beijing has not ruled out the use of force to unify the island nation with the mainland.

Mao said Beijing "firmly opposes the US’ arrangement for Tsai Ing-wen’s ‘transit’ trip to the US and a meeting between her and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, the third highest-ranking official of the US government, because it seriously contravenes the one-China principle and provisions in the three China-US joint communiqués and gravely undermines China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity."

McCarthy will meet with Tsai in California on Wednesday, his office announced on Monday.

Tsai, 66, is on a 10-day trip to Central America since last Wednesday.

She made her first stopover in New York before flying to Guatemala and Belize in Central America, two of only 13 countries with formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan.

The Taiwanese president is expected in Los Angeles on the return leg of her trip.

McCarthy’s office said the meeting with Tsai Ing-wen “will be bipartisan,” and held at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California.

Last week, China vowed to take "countermeasures" in response to any meeting between Tsai and a US official during her transit to Central America, stating that such a meeting would "undermine peace across the Taiwan Strait."

However, Washington said Beijing should not use this transit as a pretext to step up aggressive activity around the strait.

An unannounced trip to Taipei by McCarthy's predecessor, Nancy Pelosi, in August last year triggered an unprecedented response from China, which launched military operations around Taiwan, a self-governing island of 24 million people located across the Taiwan Strait from mainland China.