White House Urges Restraint From China Ahead Of McCarthy-Tsai Meeting

MNI London: House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and a bipartisan group of lawmakers will host Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen for a sensitive meeting in California today as Tsai “transits” through the United States on a broader tour of regional allies.

• McCarthy will become the highest ranking US official to meet a Taiwan president on US soil since Washington established diplomatic relations with Beijing in 1979, and follows a precedent set by former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) last year to escalate Congressional contact with Taipei.
• Beijing claims such meetings violate the principles of the One-China policy and has threatened unspecified retaliatory measures if the meeting takes place.
• The Chinese embassy in Washington said in an email to US lawmakers: “I have to point out that China will not sit idly by in the face of a blatant provocation and will most likely take necessary and resolute actions in response to the unwanted situation.”
• NSC Spox John Kirby said: “I’m not going to... speculate about what the Chinese might or might not do. We strongly urge them to not overreact to this, again, because there’s just simply no reason to.”