Helen Davidson and Chi Hui Lin in Taipei
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The Chinese government has threatened retaliation if Taiwan\u2019s president, Tsai Ing-wen, meets the US House speaker this week, and urged the US not to let her transit through the country, saying it would be a \u201cprovocation\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tsai left Taiwan on Wednesday afternoon for a 10-day trip to visit Central American allies, Belize and Guatemala. The trip includes two stopovers, in New York on the way in, and Los Angeles on the way out. Tsai is expected to meet with the speaker,\u00a0Kevin McCarthy<\/a>\u00a0in California, but there hasn\u2019t been official confirmation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Just hours before Tsai was due to leave Taipei, China\u2019s Taiwan Affairs Office issued a warning against the trip. \u201cIf she contacts US House speaker McCarthy, it will be another provocation that seriously violates the one-China principle, harms China\u2019s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and destroys peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait,\u201d Zhu Fenglian, the office\u2019s spokesperson told a news conference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe firmly oppose this and will definitely take measures to resolutely fight back.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The one-China principle is a domestic Chinese edict which makes clear the government\u2019s claim over Taiwan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Shortly before her departure on Wednesday, Tsai told media external pressure would not stop Taiwan from engaging with the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cTaiwan\u2019s determination to go to the world will only become stronger and stronger,\u201d she said. \u201cWe are calm, confident, unyielding, and non-provocative.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Speaking at Taoyuan airport where she was joined by the ambassadors of Guatemala and Belize, Tsai said Taiwan would defend the values of freedom and democracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen the international community needs Taiwan, Taiwan will contribute. And if Taiwan encounters difficulties, partners will also support Taiwan.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Taiwan\u2019s foreign minister, Joseph Wu tweeted a photo from inside the plane before take-off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u00a0in a trip to visit our allies Guatemala & Belize. Heard that it\u2019s very warm there, weather or otherwise.\u201d\u201cI\u2019m excited to accompany [Tsai] again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Beijing intends to annex Taiwan under what it terms \u201creunification\u201d. Taiwan\u2019s democratically elected government and a large majority of its people reject the prospect of Chinese rule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The US does not recognise Taiwan as a country but is a strong supporter of its efforts to resist Beijing\u2019s increasing efforts at military intimidation and diplomatic coercion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The US government had said Tsai\u2019s stopover \u2013 her sixth through the US since becoming president in 2016 \u2013 was \u201cnormal\u201d and warned Beijing not to use it as a pretext for aggressive behaviour. In August last year, in response to a visit to Taipei by then US speaker Nancy Pelosi, China\u2019s People\u2019s Liberation Army surrounded Taiwan\u2019s main island<\/a> with days of live-fire drills, disrupting sea and air traffic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pelosi\u2019s successor, Republican Kevin McCarthy, had said he would like to visit Taiwan, but a meeting with Tsai in California has been interpreted by observers as an attempt to avoid a repeat of the Pelosi visit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A US official said that a McCarthy meeting with Tsai would not signal any escalation from the US side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMembers of Congress have met with the Taiwan president on nearly every transit\u201d by Taiwanese leaders in the past, the official said. Helen Davidson and Chi Hui Lin in Taipei The Chinese government has threatened retaliation if Taiwan\u2019s president, Tsai Ing-wen, meets the US House speaker this week, and urged the US not to let her transit through the country, saying it would be a \u201cprovocation\u201d. Tsai left Taiwan on Wednesday afternoon for a 10-day trip to …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":6002,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172,183,218],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-172","category-asian-issues","category-reports-and-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6005"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6005\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6006,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6005\/revisions\/6006"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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(Source: The Guardian)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"