China on Wednesday threatened retaliation if House Speaker Kevin McCarthy meets with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen as she transits through the United States next week, saying it would be a “provocation.”
Speaking hours later as she left Taiwan, a self-governing island democracy that Beijing claims as its territory, Tsai said external pressure would not deter her government from engaging with the world.
Tsai’s trip comes as Beijing is buoyed by newly established diplomatic ties with Honduras and a historic visit to China by a former Taiwanese president.
The dueling visits underscore Taiwan’s increasingly fragile status as well as the growing tensions between the U.S. and China, which experts told NBC News could lead Beijing to respond to Tsai’s U.S. travel more aggressively than in the past.
In remarks at an airport outside Taipei before her departure, Tsai said “we are calm and confident, will neither yield nor provoke.”
“Taiwan will firmly walk on the road of freedom and democracy and go into the world,” she said. “Though the road ahead is rough and steep, we are not alone.”
Tsai will first stop in New York starting Wednesday on her way to Guatemala and Belize, then make another stop in Los Angeles before returning to Taiwan on April 7.
In Los Angeles, she is likely to meet in person with McCarthy and other members of Congress, though it has not been officially confirmed.
A spokesperson for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office objected to any such meeting, which Beijing would view as an expression of support for Taiwan independence.
“If she makes contact with U.S. House Speaker McCarthy, it will be another provocation that seriously violates the one-China principle, undermines China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and undermines peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait,” the spokesperson, Zhu Fenglian, said Wednesday at a regular news briefing.
“We are firmly opposed to this and will take measures to resolutely fight back,” she added, without saying what those measures might be.
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