US House speaker to meet with Taiwan president on April 5 Kyodo News

WASHINGTON — US House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy will host a meeting with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen on Wednesday in California, his office said. A statement released Monday by his office finally confirmed the widely expected meeting that is likely to provoke an angry response from China, which has threatened "resolute countermeasures" against the United States if it happens. The brief statement said the meeting will be bipartisan and it will take place at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. Tsai is now on a 10-day tour to Central America, which involves transit through the United States at a time when tensions between Washington and Beijing run high. Bilateral relationship became extremely tense in the wake of McCarthy's Democratic predecessor Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan last August. The visit by the third-highest-ranking US official led China to freeze military communication channels between the two countries. China, which regards Taiwan as part of its territory, also conducted large-scale military exercises in areas encircling the self-ruled democratic island. The retaliatory move included the firing of ballistic missiles, some of which fell into Japan's exclusive economic zone. McCarthy, a Republican, had earlier expressed hope to visit Taiwan if he was elected to the top leadership post in the House of Representatives. Tsai last had a stopover in the United States in 2019. US officials have repeatedly stressed a trip in which a Taiwanese leader transits the country is not extraordinary and urged China not to use it as a "pretext" to step up military activity in the Taiwan Strait.

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