TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — After the details of President Tsai Ing-wen's (蔡英文) meeting with U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy were confirmed, China responded with its routine “opposition.”
McCarthy’s office said on Monday (April 3) that the speaker will host a bipartisan meeting with Tsai on Wednesday (April 5) at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, Reuters cited. The event will be the first meeting between a Taiwanese president and a U.S. House speaker on U.S. soil.
On Monday, when asked about China's reaction to such a meeting, China Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning (毛寧) declared: “There is only one China. Taiwan is an unalienable part of China. China has reiterated several times that we resolutely oppose the U.S. conducting official interaction with the Taiwanese government in any form.”
“The U.S. representative in question should follow the one China principle and the rules in the Three Communiques and not send the wrong signal to ‘Taiwan independence’ forces,” she said, adding that “China will take resolute measures to defend the completeness of its sovereignty and territory."
In response, the Taiwanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) repeated in a press release that Taiwan has never been part of nor ruled by China, which is “an objective fact clearly known internationally.” It slammed China’s remarks as “absurd and wild” and its sovereignty and territory claim as “so far-fetched it does not warrant a rebuttal.”
MOFA proclaimed that Taiwan, as a sovereign country, has the right to interact and develop relationships with countries around the world and will not condone any country’s interference or oppression under any excuse. “It will not set boundaries for itself due to being threatened or interfered with," MOFA added.
Deputy Secretary-General Xavier Chang (張惇涵), who is accompanying Tsai on her diplomatic trip in the Americas, shared during an interview in Belize that the delegation is looking forward to meeting McCarthy and exchanging views with bipartisan representatives. Regarding China’s response to the issue, he quoted Reagan as saying, “Evil is powerless, if the good are unafraid.”