Beijing warns that Tsai Ing-wen’s planned meeting with Speaker Kevin McCarthy could provoke retaliation
PHOTO: YUKI IWAMURA/ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK—Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen arrived in New York on Wednesday for her first visit to the U.S. in more than three years, in the face of threats from Beijing that American politicians who engage with her could trigger unspecified retaliation.
Her visit through Friday provides Ms. Tsai with a rare opportunity to command an international stage and promote the democratic island to its most prominent champion, the U.S.
Ms. Tsai’s presence in the U.S. is nonofficial, in line with U.S. policy toward China, and is technically considered a transit, according to U.S. officials.
Several dozen people holding Taiwan and U.S. flags outside Ms. Tsai’s Midtown hotel on Wednesday afternoon were outnumbered by hundreds of Beijing supporters with Chinese flags who were kept to the other side of the street by police. Some carried signs calling Ms. Tsai a traitor.
“Down with Tsai Ing-wen” was chanted through a loudspeaker. Ms. Tsai’s supporters, including one dressed as a black bear, a symbol of Taiwan, shouted, “Let’s go Taiwan!”
PHOTO: TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
Kevin Tsay, a Taiwan-born hotelier who said he traveled two hours from New Jersey to greet Ms. Tsai, said the visit is important to show that “Taiwan is different from China.”
In keeping with past transit stops, Ms. Tsai won’t be meeting with senior members of the Biden administration, U.S. officials said. They cautioned Beijing not to overreact, noting that Ms. Tsai has visited the U.S. on similar stopovers on six previous occasions.
The visit could, nevertheless, spark an angry response from Beijing.
China considers Taiwan an integral part of its territory and contends that any interaction with Ms. Tsai or its other leaders by U.S. authorities violates diplomatic agreements. But Beijing doesn’t control Taiwan and says it is monitoring the visit with a determination to defend its national sovereignty and territorial integrity.
“The trip is not so much a ‘transit’, but an attempt to seek breakthroughs and propagate ‘Taiwan independence,’” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Mao Ning, told reporters Wednesday. “The issue is not about China overreacting, but the U.S. egregiously conniving at and supporting ‘Taiwan independence’ separatists.”
Ms. Tsai’s expected meeting with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy next week in Los Angeles is likely to prove the most consequential aspect of the Taiwanese president’s two-part U.S. visit.
PHOTO: STEFANI REYNOLDS/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
Between New York and California, Ms. Tsai will visit Guatemala and Belize, two of the 13 countries that diplomatically recognize Taiwan. The tours are her first since the pandemic curbed Ms. Tsai’s generally limited international travel, which last took her to the U.S. in mid-2019.
An official in China’s Taiwan-policy office on Wednesday warned that any meeting between Ms. Tsai and Mr. McCarthy will trigger a response, although she didn’t spell out what form the reaction would take. “We firmly oppose this and will definitely take measures to respond,” Zhu Fenglian, a spokeswoman for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, told reporters Wednesday.
China last summer issued similar warnings in the face of expectations of a visit to Taiwan by Mr. McCarthy’s predecessor, Nancy Pelosi. After Mrs. Pelosi’s two-day visit last August, along with five Democratic Party legislators, China kicked off wargames around Taiwan that culminated with a simulated blockade of the island.
Source: https://www.wsj.com/articles/taiwans-president-lands-in-the-u-s-amid-threats-from-china-b7720379