Meeting with President Tsai not meant to escalate tensions with China, McCarthy says
ROC Central News Agency
04/06/2023 10:29 AM
Los Angeles, April 5 (CNA) U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy said Wednesday that his meeting with Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) was not meant to escalate tensions between Beijing and Washington.
"It's not our intention to escalate [tensions with China]," McCarthy told a press conference held after his meeting with Tsai at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, the first-ever meeting between a Taiwanese president and a U.S. House speaker on American soil.
Instead, he said, the meeting "provided a greater peace and stability for the world" and reflected the desires from both sides to "continue to build and foster democracy and freedom."
Tensions between Washington and Beijing have heightened in recent months after an alleged Chinese spy balloon drifted for days over American airspace and the U.S. rolled out measures to prevent China from acquiring certain high-tech components.
The meeting also demonstrated the "unwavering and bipartisan support" for Taiwan in the U.S. Congress, according to McCarthy, who became the third sitting U.S. House speaker to have met with a Taiwanese president, since the Republic of China (Taiwan's official name) and the U.S. ended official diplomatic relations in 1979.
"The one thing I hope all countries see is that we're united in the same approach, together on both sides," he said. "And we're going to speak with one voice when it comes to China or any others when we look at foreign policy."
"There's no need for retaliation," McCarthy said, referring to China, which launched week-long large-scale military drills around Taiwan in the wake of a visit to Taiwan by McCarthy's predecessor Nancy Pelosi about eight months ago.
Beijing, which sees Taiwan as part of Chinese territory and opposes any official interactions between Taipei and Washington, also suspended imports of dozens of Taiwanese agricultural and food products following Pelosi's visit to Taiwan, the first by a sitting U.S. Speaker since Newt Gingrich in 1997.
Officials from China have repeatedly raised objections to the meeting between McCarthy and Tsai - who arrived in California on Tuesday evening after visiting New York, Guatemala and Belize as part of her 10-day overseas trip - and threatened to take "resolute measures" in response.
However, McCarthy said "there is no place" for Beijing to dictate where he should go or whom he should meet.
"I am the speaker of the House ... I'm not the general manager of the Houston Rockets," McCarthy said, in an apparent reference to Beijing's sanctioning of the Rockets after the team's general manager expressed support for protestors in Hong Kong.
McCarthy noted, however, that he currently did not have plans to travel to Taiwan.
McCarthy said that despite not currently planning to visit Taiwan, "that doesn't mean I will not go," adding that should that happen, he would lead a bipartisan delegation to Taiwan.
Although McCarthy had previously pledged to visit Taiwan if elected House speaker, he said at a press conference in early February, about a month after winning the speakership following several rounds of voting, that he was not planning a trip to Taiwan.
Media later reported that Tsai had proposed the two meet in Los Angeles on her return from a trip to Taiwan's allies in Central America as an alternative to a meeting in Taiwan, which Taipei feared could have triggered a more aggressive response by Beijing.
According to the speaker, he and Tsai had "constructive" discussions during the meeting, which was attended by more than a dozen lawmakers from both McCarthy's Republican Party and the ruling Democratic Party.
Those present talked about the need to speed up the delivery of arms items that Washington has sold to Taipei while strengthening bilateral trade and technology cooperation, McCarthy said.
McCarthy, however, did not answer media questions about whether he would support the U.S. government sending troops to help defend Taiwan in the event of an invasion, saying it was "a hypothetical question."
"Our goal is that hypothetical never comes to fruition," he said, adding that "the best way" to achieve that goal would be to supply the weapons that allow people to deter war and defend themselves.
At the same time, he said, both sides reaffirmed during the meeting the need to continue promoting their shared values of freedom and democracy on the international stage.
"America must stay true to our values and remain consistent in our support for the people of Taiwan, who share American people's desire to live in peace, freedom, and democracy," he said.
Democratic Party lawmaker Pete Aguilar, echoed similar views. He told the press conference that the House Democratic Caucus, which he chairs, would continue seeking to grow bilateral economic ties with Taiwan.
According to Aguilar, the partnership between Taiwan and the U.S. has been rooted in the pillars of security, shared economic interest, and democracy in the past four decades.
"I told President Tsai that the House Democrats will never abandon this relationship... because we understand the unique role, and [the] vital role, that Taiwan plays in the region," Aguilar said.
(By Teng Pei-ju)
Enditem/ASG
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