China has issued a warning to the United States regarding Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen’s planned transit through the country.
China has claimed Taiwan as its own territory and has previously warned US officials not to meet with Tsai.
US House of Representatives Speaker, Kevin McCarthy is expected to meet with her during her visit, which has prompted China to threaten to “resolutely fight back.”
Zhu Fenglian, the spokesperson for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, told reporters in Beijing that Tsai’s transit through the US includes meetings with US officials and legislators.
However, if she meets with McCarthy, it will be viewed as a violation of the one-China principle, harm China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and destroy peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.
She said; “If she has contact with US House Speaker McCarthy, it will be another provocation that seriously violates the one-China principle, harms China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and destroys peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.
“We firmly oppose this and will definitely take measures to resolutely fight back,” Zhu added, without giving details.
The US has stated that such transits by Taiwanese presidents are routine, and China should not use Tsai’s visit as a pretext for aggressive action against Taiwan.
Taiwanese presidents routinely pass through the US while visiting diplomatic allies in Latin America, the Caribbean, and the Pacific, often using the trips for high-level meetings.
Tsai is expected to give a speech in New York hosted by the Hudson Institute, a conservative US think tank, on March 30, en route to Latin America. She is also expected to speak at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California on her return to Asia in April.
A Taipei-based adviser with the International Republican Institute, J Michael Cole, told Aljazeera; “Such visits are a reaffirmation of US support for Taiwan at a time when critics of the Tsai administration – and the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] – strive to sow doubt about the reliability and commitment of the US as a partner to Taiwan.”
