“Beijing’s Potential Response if Taiwanese President Meets with McCarthy”

President Tsai Ing-wen, who undertook this trip to strengthen the island’s diplomatic ties with its allies, arrived under good escort at the end of the afternoon in a large hotel in Manhattan. Outside, she was greeted by about 100 supporters waving Taiwanese and American flags, while about 100 Beijing supporters waved Chinese flags across the street.

The president of Taiwan must stay until Thursday in New York before going to Guatemala and Belize. She will stop on the return to California, where Kevin McCarthy, elected Republican of this state, declared that he would meet her, which the Taiwanese authorities did not confirm.

Beijing warned on Wednesday that it was “resolutely opposed” to such a meeting, promising to take “firm measures to retaliate” if it took place. The White House responded that China should not “take the pretext” that Tsai Ing-wen is in “transit” in the United States to “aggressively overreact around (the issue of) the Taiwan Strait”.

“One China”

John Kirby, spokesman for the National Security Council, reaffirmed the “longstanding unofficial relationship with Taiwan and the United States’ policy of ‘one China’, which remains unchanged”. China considers the autonomous island as one of its provinces and intends to take it back by force if necessary. In the name of its “one China” principle, no country is supposed to maintain official ties with Beijing and Taipei at the same time.

Such a meeting would be considered “a new provocation that will seriously violate the one-China principle, undermine China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and jeopardize peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.” said Zhu Fenglian, spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office in Beijing. In 2022, a visit to Taiwan by Kevin McCarthy’s predecessor, Nancy Pelosi, had already sparked the ire of Beijing.

“External pressure will not hinder our determination” to be active on the international scene, Tsai Ing-wen said before leaving Taiwan. During this 10-day trip, Tsai Ing-wen will meet the President of Guatemala Alejandro Giammattei and the Prime Minister of Belize John Briceno. Belize and Guatemala are among the last 13 countries to officially recognize Taiwan over Beijing, after Honduras established diplomatic ties with China on Sunday.

Pression

For the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Washington “is blindly in collusion with Taiwan and supports the independence and secessionist forces” of the island. Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning on Wednesday urged the United States to cease all forms of official exchange with Taiwan and to “stop (…) undermining the political foundations of China-US relations.”

Beijing has stepped up military, economic and diplomatic pressure on the island since Tsai Ing-wen came to power in 2016, and has since reclaimed nine of its diplomatic allies.

“Beijing’s attempts to seize Taiwan’s diplomatic partners will lead Taiwan to develop closer ties with the United States,” said James Lee, a specialist in US-Taiwanese relations at Sinica Academy in Taiwan. Washington, which nevertheless granted its diplomatic recognition to Beijing in 1979, is the most powerful ally of the island as well as its main supplier of arms. According to James Lee, “the loss of official relations with third countries will be compensated by the deepening of unofficial relations of Taiwan”.

“Avoiding War”

One of Tsai Ing-wen’s main opponents in Taiwan, former President Ma Ying-jeou, was in China on Wednesday, where he called on “both sides” to “avoid war and seek peace”. This is the first such trip for a former Taiwanese leader.

Latin America, where China has increased its investments, has become a strategic ground in the diplomatic battle that has pitted Taipei against Beijing since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949. Taipei denounced Sunday the “coercions and intimidations” of the China to take its allies from it, after the official announcement in Beijing of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Honduras and China.

Besides Guatemala and Belize, Taiwan still maintains diplomatic relations with countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, including Paraguay and Haiti, but also with Pacific island nations and the Vatican.

(AFP)Show comments