Tsai to set milestone in meeting with U.S. house speaker
ROC Central News Agency
04/05/2023 11:40 AM
Washington, April 4 (CNA) President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) is set to become the first Republic of China (Taiwan) president to meet with a United States House speaker on U.S. soil when she meets with Kevin McCarthy on Wednesday morning U.S. time.
Tsai, who arrived in Los Angeles on Tuesday night after visiting New York, Guatemala and Belize, will meet with McCarthy at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley at 10 a.m. Wednesday, according to McCarthy's office.
Tsai and McCarthy will issue a joint statement after the closed door meeting, and lawmakers who take part will hold a press briefing in the afternoon, McCarthy's office said.
It will be the third time a Taiwan president will have met with a U.S. House speaker since the ROC and the U.S. ended official diplomatic relations in 1979 and the first time the encounter takes place on U.S. soil.
The first meeting occurred in 1997 when Newt Gingrich met with President Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) in Taipei, and the second came in August 2022 when Nancy Pelosi met with Tsai, also in Taipei.
Presidential Office Deputy Secretary-General Xavier Chang (張惇涵) would not disclose the list of U.S. lawmakers who will attend the Tsai-McCarthy meeting when asked about the issue aboard the president's charter flight as she was heading to Los Angeles.
A source told CNA that Republican Mike Gallagher, chair of a new House select committee on China who visited Taiwan in February, and Democrat Raja Krishnamoorthi, ranking member of the China committee, are among those on the list.
CNA has also learned that over 160 reporters have signed up to cover the meeting.
Beijing, which sees Taiwan as part of its territory, has objected to the encounter, warning that it would take "resolute measures" to protect Chinese sovereignty.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning (毛寧) reiterated Monday that Beijing strongly opposes "any form of official interaction and contact between the U.S. side and Taiwan authorities" and "will take resolute measures to safeguard its sovereignty and territorial integrity."
In response, Presidential Office spokeswoman Lin Yu-chan (林聿禪) said Monday that "China is not in a position to meddle in" the matter because Taiwan and its 23 million people have the right to engage with other democratic countries.
U.S. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby on Monday reiterated the U.S. position cautioning China not to overreact to the Tsai-McCarthy meeting, according to U.S. media.
"We've certainly seen some rhetoric coming out of Beijing with respect to President Tsai Ing-wen's transit," Kirby said.
He said Tsai and "every other previous president of Taiwan has transited the United States, so there's nothing uncommon here. There's nothing atypical about it and there's no reason for the Chinese to overreact."
Following Pelosi's visit in August 2022, Beijing ramped up maritime and missile activities near Taiwan and tried to blockade and bracket the island.
Those missions and subsequent repeated crossings of the median line of the Taiwan Strait by Chinese military aircraft escalated China's attempts at intimidation in the region.
Before Tsai arrived in Los Angeles, Taiwanese expatriate groups there told CNA that around 300 overseas Taiwanese will be welcoming Tsai at her hotel.
Some Taiwanese expats said they have learned that nearly 1,000 overseas Chinese nationals will stage a series of protests at every stop Tsai makes while in California.
Overseas Taiwanese groups said they have prepared stickers for Taiwanese expats to put on so they can differentiate themselves from their Chinese counterparts to avoid possible conflict.
(By Chiang Ching-yeh, Wen Kuei-hsiang, Lin Hung-han, Chang Hsing-yu and Joseph Yeh)
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