Kevin McCarthy and Tsai Ing-wen met in California.
(Photo: AP)
Washington At a meeting with US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen expressed her gratitude for the continued US support for her country. This support reassures the people of Taiwan “that we are not isolated and that we are not alone,” Tsai said after the meeting on Wednesday (local time). “We are once again in a world where democracy is under threat,” Tsai said, referring to tensions with China. In particular, she thanked lawmakers from both parties for strengthening Taiwan’s ability to defend itself. McCarthy said he believes the US-Taiwan bond is stronger now than at any point in his life.
The meeting took place at the Ronald Regan Presidential Library in the city of Simi Valley, northwest of Los Angeles, during a stopover made by Tsai on her way back from her Central American trip, and was not declared an official visit. Like most countries in the world, the US does not officially recognize Taiwan as a sovereign state, in order not to violate Beijing’s “One China Policy”. The People’s Republic of China insists that there can only be one Chinese state, with Beijing as its sole legitimate government.
Taiwan has had an independent government since 1949, but Beijing considers the democratic island part of the People’s Republic of China and has in the past threatened to invade the island. Even before the meeting, the Chinese government had criticized the planned meeting in California.
Republican McCarthy is number three in the United States national rankings, after the President and Vice President. China sees a high-level meeting between US and Taiwan officials as a provocation. The Chinese leadership responded to a visit by McCarthy’s predecessor, Democrat Nancy Pelosi, to Taiwan last August with military maneuvers lasting several days. So far, there has been no increased Chinese military activity around Taiwan in response to Tsai’s recent visit, a US Defense Department spokeswoman said at a news conference on Wednesday.
US supports Taiwan
Before the meeting, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged China not to further fuel tensions between the two countries because of Tsai’s stopover in the United States. “In plain language, this means that Beijing should not use the transit as a pretext for measures to exacerbate tensions (…),” Blinken said in Brussels on Wednesday. Transits by high-ranking Taiwanese politicians are nothing new. “They are private, they are unofficial.” This also applies to corresponding meetings.
The United States has long supported Taiwan with weapons, among other things. At the beginning of March, the US government approved a planned sale of armaments to Taiwan worth 619 million US dollars (around 566 million euros). In September, the US approved $1.1 billion worth of arms exports to Taiwan. When the United States established diplomatic relations with China in 1979, it passed its own law to ensure Taiwan’s defense. The Taiwan Relations Act pledges that the US will “always stand by Taiwan’s side.”
Support from Taiwan is further adding to the already high tensions between China and the US. In February, the penetration of a suspected Chinese spy balloon into US airspace caused discord. The balloon was shot down by the US military a few days later after sweeping across much of the US and hovering over critical military infrastructure.
To counter China’s thirst for power and the East Asian country’s growing military strength, the US is also expanding its military presence in the Indo-Pacific. The Pentagon announced in January that a kind of rapid reaction force is to be set up in Japan. It was a unit that was “deadlier, more agile and more powerful,” it said. In the Philippines, the US military will have access to four other bases of the Philippine Armed Forces, the Pentagon said. This increases the number to nine, the broadcaster CNN reported.
In mid-March, at a joint meeting with the heads of government of Great Britain and Australia, US President Joe Biden announced a concrete timetable to equip Australia with nuclear-powered submarines and thus strengthen military deterrence in the Indo-Pacific region.
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