China warns of 'countermeasures' if Taiwan's president meets US House speaker

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ISTANBUL (AA) – Vowing “countermeasures,” China on Wednesday said any meeting between Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen and the US official during the former’s “transit” to central America “undermines peace across Taiwan Strait.”

If Tsai contacts US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, “it will be another provocation that seriously violates the one-China principle and undermines China's sovereignty and territorial integrity as well as peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” said Zhu Fenglian, spokeswoman for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council.

Zhu said China “firmly opposes Tsai Ing-wen's planned ‘transit’ visit to the US,” a transcript of her press briefing read.

Beijing will “take resolute countermeasures” against such an event, she added.

Tsai, 66, is undertaking a 10-day trip to central America from today.

Reports have claimed that the president of the island nation may meet McCarthy in California after she returns from Guatemala and Belize at the end of her trip.

After flying from Taipei, Tsai will make her first stopover in New York before flying down south to central America.

“The ‘transit’ by the Taiwan leader is essentially a provocative act of ‘relying on the United States to seek independence,’ and the US side is urged to strictly abide by the one-China principle and the three China-US joint communiques, and take concrete actions to fulfill the solemn commitment of not supporting ‘Taiwan independence’,” Chinese public broadcaster CGTN quoted Zhu.

China considers Taiwan as a “breakaway province” while Taipei has insisted on its independence since 1949.

Beijing has vehemently opposed any official contact between Washington and Taipei.

The unannounced trip to Taiwan by McCarthy’s predecessor Nancy Pelosi last August triggered an unprecedented response from China which launched military operations around Taiwan, an island nation of around 24 million sitting across the Taiwan Strait, in southern mainland China.

China sent 16 aircraft and four vessels around Taiwan on Wednesday when Tsai is flying out for her first overseas trip in the past three years as the COVID-19 pandemic had forced border closures.

Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said 11 of the Chinese aircraft had entered the southwest Air Defense Identification Zone which Beijing does not recognize.

The US has supplied arms and weaponry to Taiwan worth billions of dollars in recent years.