Instead of meeting in Taipei, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy will meet with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen in California to prevent inciting China to retaliate violently and escalating the already hostile relations between Beijing and Washington. After McCarthy’s declaration that he would visit the autonomous island if elected speaker last summer, the Pentagon started preparing plans for his visit in January.
Tsai’s administration did, however, give McCarthy’s office “some intelligence about what the Chinese According to a source in Taiwan cited by the Financial Times on Monday, the Communist party has recently been up to and the kinds of hazards they pose.
The official declared that China is “not in a favourable condition”.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy will meet with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen in California rather than Taipei to avoid upsetting China at this time of heightened tensions between Beijing and Washington.
After visiting Taiwan in August of last year, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi infuriated Beijing, which retaliated by launching its biggest military drills in the area in 25 years.
The Taiwanese official told the Financial Times that Beijing may be putting into effect policies that are even more irrational than in the past. If we work together to regulate this, the risks it brings for everyone can be better contained. For her upcoming trip to the US and Central America, Tsai has been invited to give a speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California. McCarthy and Tsai will cross paths while she is in California.
In recent years, Beijing has increased its aggressive military actions close to Taiwan and has sent aircraft within the island’s air defence identification zone.
Chiu Kuo-cheng, the defence minister for Taiwan, issued a warning on Monday, saying the island should be on high alert for a “sudden incursion” by the Chinese military into areas near its boundaries.
Make these remarks explicitly about this year, as Chiu suggested they were doing. In the future, if necessary, they would use force.
The conflict between China and Taiwan dates back to the Chinese Civil War, which ended in 1949 with the Communist Party of China (CPC) winning and establishing the People’s Republic of China (PRC) on the mainland. The Nationalist Party (KMT), led by Chiang Kai-shek, fled to Taiwan and established the Republic of China (ROC) government there.
Since then, the PRC has considered Taiwan to be a renegade province that must be reunited with the mainland, while the ROC in Taiwan claims to be the legitimate government of all of China.
Over the years, tensions between the two sides have waxed and waned, with occasional military confrontations, particularly in the Taiwan Strait. The PRC has also used its economic and diplomatic clout to isolate Taiwan internationally, while Taiwan has sought to maintain its independence and strengthen its alliances with other countries.
In recent years, the conflict has intensified as China has become more assertive in its claims over Taiwan. In 2019, the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won Taiwan’s presidential election, which further exacerbated tensions with China. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic has heightened concerns about China’s intentions towards Taiwan, with China increasingly using its military to test Taiwan’s defences.
As of March 2023, the situation remains tense, with China continuing to increase military pressure on Taiwan, conducting regular military exercises in the Taiwan Strait and sending fighter jets and bombers into Taiwan’s airspace. The United States, which is bound by law to support Taiwan’s defence, has also increased its military presence in the region, raising fears of a potential conflict between the US and China over Taiwan.
