China Threatens Taiwan Over President’s Trip to United States

China has threatened to get even if Taiwan’s president Tsai Ing-wen meets US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy during an upcoming trip to the US, amid soaring tensions between Washington and Beijing. Scheduled meeting will be a provocation that will sabotage peace and stability in Taiwan Strait, said China spokesperson Wang Wenbin, which the government in Taipei strongly rejects.

Taiwan will hold presidential and parliamentary elections in January, with Lai, the ruling Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) presidential candidate, the frontrunner in most opinion polls Lai is making what are officially stop overs in the US on his way to and from Paraguay for the Aug. 15 inauguration of its new president, drawing irritation from Beijing which criticized Lai as a separatist.

Chinese ambassador Xie Feng told the Aspen Security Forum that Taiwan is China’s Taiwan and that the country wanted a peaceful reunification, but Taiwanese are not observing this that’s why they are advancing their agenda in seeking U.S. support they even do not admit they are Chinese. This is a very dangerous path they are taking Xie said.

Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry said in response that China had no cause to use Lai’s transit to start a fight, and China was acting absurdly in trying to claim it was an upholder of peace while continuously harrying the island with its military. Senior U.S. officials have publicly emphasized, the relevant arrangements are no different from previous practice, the ministry said in a statement.

Taiwan’s defence ministry said that on Thursday they are being harassed by 22 Chinese warplanes roaming around the island, some of which crossed the sensitive median line of the Taiwan Strait, while seven Chinese warships carried out combat readiness patrols. Lai last visited the US in January of last year, he briefly spoke with U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris. Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen and her government have repeatedly offered talks with China but been rejected, as Beijing views them as separatists. Both Tsai and Lai say only Taiwan’s people can decide their future.