Editorial | Tsai’s meeting with McCarthy is another poke in the eye
- As if Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan last year was not provocation enough, the US is once again playing with fire in its relations with mainland China
An improvement in China-United States relations is pivotal to global security and cooperation. The surest step towards putting ties back on track is to arrest a dangerous erosion of trust hastened by the visit to Taiwan last August by Nancy Pelosi, former speaker of the US House of Representatives.
The latest overseas trip by Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen could have presented an opportunity to make amends by steering clear of such provocation.
Instead, a meeting between Tsai and Pelosi’s successor, Kevin McCarthy, now third-ranking after the president and vice-president, has dashed any hope of that, prompting strong condemnation from Beijing. China sees Tsai’s transit through the US and meeting with McCarthy and a congressional delegation, like Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, as a violation of sovereignty and the “one China” principle – the political foundation of Sino-American ties.
China responded to the Pelosi visit with unprecedented live-fire military exercises around Taiwan, and suspension of several bilateral dialogues and other contacts. There is no sign yet of a comparable escalation of tension, although Beijing has threatened retaliation.
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US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy meets Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, despite Beijing’s warnings
Pelosi was the highest-ranking American official to visit Taiwan since 1997. Tsai has avoided such a blatant affront to Chinese sovereignty but, in essence, the provocation is no less. She is the first island president to meet the House speaker on American soil.