Meeting between Kevin McCarthy and Tsai Ing-wen angers China

China says US house Speaker Kevin McCarthy is ‘playing with fire’ if he meets Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen in California on Wednesday.

Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen receives a gift from Belize's Prime Minister Juan Briceno in Belmopan on Monday. Picture AFP

Republican US house Speaker Kevin McCarthy confirmed he would meet Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen in California on Wednesday, defying dire warnings from China that he was “playing with fire”.

Ms Tsai plans to stop over in the US on her return from Central America, where she has met the leaders of Guatemala and Belize before meeting Mr McCarthy.

His office said overnight on Monday that the “bipartisan” meeting would take place at the Ronald Reagan Presidential ­Library just outside Los Angeles.

Mr McCarthy had originally planned to follow the example of his Democratic predecessor as Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, who visited Taiwan in August, prompting China to conduct its largest military exercises around the island.

His decision to meet Ms Tsai in the US was viewed as a compromise that would underscore support for Taiwan but avoid inflaming tensions with China.

However, Xu Xueyuan, the charge d’affaires to the US, said last week that Washington risked “serious confrontation” no matter whether US leaders visited ­Taiwan or the reverse.

“The US keeps saying that transit is not a visit and that there are precedents, but we should not use past mistakes as excuses for repeating them today,” she said.

She urged Washington “not to repeat playing with fire on the Taiwan question”.

The US remains Taiwan’s most important ally – and its biggest arms supplier – despite switching its diplomatic recognition to Beijing in 1979. China has increased investment in Latin America, a key diplomatic battleground between Taipei and Beijing.

The US stopover comes at a key time, with Beijing having ramped up military, economic and diplomatic pressure on Taiwan since Ms Tsai came to power in 2016.

US media reported that about 20 US politicians planned to ­accompany Mr McCarthy to the meeting in California.

Taiwan accused China on Sunday of using “coercion and intimidation” to lure away its allies after Honduran Foreign Minister Enrique Reina and his Chinese counterpart, Qin Gang, officially launched relations in Beijing.

On Monday in Belize, Ms Tsai thanked one of Taiwan’s few ­remaining allies for its diplomatic support amid “constant threats and pressure” from China, in an address to the country’s parliament.

Only Belize and Guatemala ­remain allies of Taiwan in Central America after Nicaragua shifted its allegiance to Beijing in 2021, El Salvador in 2018, Panama in 2017 and Costa Rica in 2007. Taiwan retains diplomatic ties with 11 other countries: Paraguay, Haiti, the Holy See, Eswatini and seven small Caribbean and Pacific nations.

AFP