Taiwan not expecting Beijing to react on same scale as last year’s Nancy Pelosi visit if President Tsai Ing-wen meets US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy

Mainland China has threatened to ‘resolutely hit back’ if a planned meeting between Tsai and McCarthy goes ahead in California

But the island’s security chief Tsai Ming-yen says he does not expect a response comparable to last year’s war games after the previous speaker visited Taipei

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Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen leaves a hotel in New York on Wednesday. Photo: AP

Published: 7:30pm, 30 Mar 2023Updated: 8:03pm, 30 Mar 2023

Beijing is not expected to react to Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen’s stop in the United States on the same scale as last year’s unprecedented war games, the island’s security chief has said.

Tsai landed in New York on Wednesday US time. She is expected to stay two nights before heading to Guatemala on Saturday as part of a trip that will also see her visit Belize, another Central American ally.

Beijing has repeatedly warned her against meeting US leaders while in America and said it would “resolutely hit back” if a planned meeting with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy went ahead.

It has also accused Washington of colluding with Tsai to promote the cause of independence and said any meeting would be yet another “serious confrontation” between the US and China.

But Tsai Ming-yen, head of Taiwan’s National Security Bureau, said that although he did not doubt Beijing would intensify its military operations around Taiwan, it would not respond on the scale it did when McCarthy’s predecessor visited the island last August.

“The situation this time is not as complicated as the time when the former speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan last year,” he told a meeting of the legislature on Thursday.

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Taiwan not expecting Beijing to react on same scale as last year’s Nancy Pelosi visit if President Tsai Ing-wen meets US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy

Mainland China has threatened to ‘resolutely hit back’ if a planned meeting between Tsai and McCarthy goes ahead in California But the island’s security chief Tsai Ming-yen says he does not expect a response comparable to last year’s war games after the previous speaker visited Taipei

Mainland China has threatened to ‘resolutely hit back’ if a planned meeting between Tsai and McCarthy goes ahead in California

But the island’s security chief Tsai Ming-yen says he does not expect a response comparable to last year’s war games after the previous speaker visited Taipei