The speaker of the US House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, received the Taiwanese president, Tsai Ing-wen, in California this Wednesday, and celebrated the “friendship” between the United States and Taiwan at that meeting surrounded by controversy.
“The friendship between the United States and the people of Taiwan has never been stronger. It is an honor to welcome President Tsai Ing-wen to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library,” he wrote on his Twitter account along with a photo of both. talking.
The meeting has been seen by the Chinese government as a threat to its sovereignty, which is why days before the meeting it declared its “firm opposition” and warned that it would take “firm measures” if the meeting took place.
Tsai meets with McCarthy after touring Central America, where she visited Belize and Guatemala, two of the thirteen countries that still maintain diplomatic ties with Taipei.
He will also meet with a bipartisan group of US legislators at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, located in Simi Valley, California.
Although the meeting has been considered a show of US support for the Taiwan government, John Kirby, one of the White House spokesmen, assured this Wednesday that the meeting is a normal diplomatic act.
“There’s no reason for them to overreact to it. He hasn’t met with any Administration officials. Nothing has changed in our policies toward Taiwan. And again, there’s no reason for them to overreact.” pointed.
The island is one of the biggest sources of conflict between China and the United States, mainly because Washington is Taiwan’s main arms supplier and would be its biggest military ally in the event of a war with China.
China claims sovereignty over Taiwan, which it views as a rogue province since Kuomintang nationalists withdrew there in 1949 after losing the civil war against the communists.
Source: Elmostrador