Exclusive | China unofficially suggests way to mitigate Taiwan trip by House speaker: US sources
- Kevin McCarthy may still meet with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, but to avoid a furious response, Beijing cites a 1997 diplomatic plan, analysts say
- The backchannel proposal, one says, is ‘actually a more constructive reaction than their reaction to Pelosi’
While the risk of an immediate crisis was reduced this week when US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy signalled near-term plans to meet Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen on US soil rather than in Taipei, the threat of an overwhelming response by the mainland Chinese military persists after he failed to rule out a future trip to the self-governing island.
But Beijing believes it may have a fix.
On Tuesday, McCarthy ended weeks of will-he-go speculation with word that both the Tsai sit-down and a subsequent trip to Taiwan remain in play.
McCarthy’s Taiwan moves are being closely scrutinised in Washington, Beijing and Taipei. After then-speaker Nancy Pelosi’s trip in August, the People’s Liberation Army launched dozens of military sorties and missiles, shut down shipping lanes, staged a mock seaborne embargo, cut diplomatic channels and restricted trade, causing global markets to swoon.
In an apparent bid to keep US-China relations from deteriorating further, however, China in recent months has shopped a possible workaround, according to several of those approached.
Using “track two” channels – ideas routed through analysts and former officials to preclude a domestic backlash or formal rejection – it dusted off a 26-year-old playbook employed when then-speaker Newt Gingrich visited Taiwan in 1997.