US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy meets Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen in California
US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy met Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen in California on Wednesday, marking the highest-profile gathering of an American official and the self-ruled island's leader since McCarthy's predecessor, Nancy Pelosi, met Tsai in Taipei eight months ago.
McCarthy, meeting Tsai at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, is reportedly joined by a bipartisan group of at least 15 other lawmakers, many from the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party.
Press statements by McCarthy and Tsai were expected at noon California time.
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The Taiwanese president is transiting the US on her way back from official engagements in Belize and Guatemala, two Central American countries that continue to recognise Taipei over Beijing.
Tsai landed in Los Angeles on Tuesday, where she was greeted by supporters and protesters at the airport and in front of her hotel.
The meeting with McCarthy marked the first time a Taiwanese leader has met a House speaker, the third-ranking US official, on American soil since Washington switched diplomatic recognition from Beijing to Taipei in 1979.
Tsai's visits to Los Angeles and New York this month form her seventh trip to the US since becoming Taiwan's leader in 2016.
China expressed anger over Pelosi's trip to Taipei last August by launching unprecedented live-fire military exercises around the island and suspending several dialogues and lines of communication with the US.
While Tsai's plan to meet McCarthy in California is seen as a way to reduce the chances of a similar response by Beijing, the Chinese government, which regards Taiwan as a rogue province to be eventually united with the mainland, had repeatedly threatened retaliation if the visit were to take place.
Ahead of Wednesday's meeting, Li Xiang, a representative from the Chinese embassy in the US, reportedly contacted various congressional offices in Washington to express "China's deep concern and firm opposition" to the gathering.
According to a screenshot of an email shared by Ashley Hinson, Republican congresswoman of Iowa and part of the delegation in California, Li said China would not "sit idly by in the face of a blatant provocation and will most likely take necessary and resolute actions in response".
Biden administration officials have downplayed the visit, calling it a "transit" rather than an "official" trip. They also noted the visit is consistent with long-standing US practice, and said they have held talks with Chinese counterparts about Tsai's trip.
The White House has repeatedly stated that Congress is a coequal branch of government and that a House speaker can independently decide their travel plans.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Fujian Maritime Safety Administration announced that a joint cruise and patrol operation had begun in the northern and central parts of the Taiwan Strait.
While the Biden administration has insisted that Washington's one-China policy has not changed, some protocols have been revised in recent years to allow easier engagement with Taiwanese officials.
In 2021, the State Department announced a new policy to "encourage" engagement between American and Taiwanese government officials, bringing Washington into compliance with a law signed by Biden's predecessor, Donald Trump.
The guidelines "encourage US government engagement with Taiwan that reflects our deepening unofficial relationship", State Department spokesman Ned Price said then.
US President Joe Biden's own initiative, the US-Taiwan Initiative on 21st Century Trade, has led to several rounds of talks, with the most recent one bringing the two sides closer to signing a trade initiative that would increase economic contact.
Some members of Congress have supported legislation calling for the elimination of the one-China policy.
Among 15 Taiwan-related pieces of legislation introduced since the Republican-controlled Congress convened in January, a Republican-led resolution with 36 cosponsors supports abandoning the policy.
Another one, a bipartisan bill, calls for the US to support Taiwan's inclusion in the International Monetary Fund.
Calls for increased international recognition for Taiwan have yet to find much legislative success. An effort last year to recognise Taiwan as "a major non-Nato ally" failed to become law.
That effort evolved into the Taiwan Enhanced Resilience Act, which was passed as part of the annual defence authorisation bill, and included provisions intended to expedite US security assistance to the island as well as increase people-to-people exchanges.
Various members of Congress have travelled to Taiwan in recent months, including Mike Gallagher, a Wisconsin Republican and chair of the House select committee, who returned from a trip in February urging the US to "move heaven and earth" to deter Beijing from showing aggression towards Taiwan.
Gallagher is leading a bipartisan delegation on a three-day trip to California, meeting with military experts as well as tech and entertainment executives to discuss China's influence in the US.
Last week, during her stopover in New York, Tsai met various members of Congress, including House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, Democratic senator Mark Kelly of Arizona, and Republican senators Dan Sullivan of Alaska and Joni Ernst of Iowa.
McCarthy said last month that a meeting with Tsai on American soil would not preclude him from visiting Taiwan in the future.
This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
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