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Tsai-McCarthy meeting: Beijing talks tough on Taiwan but expected to tone down military response
- Beijing roundly condemns the meeting on US soil and stations an aircraft carrier southeast of the island
- Nevertheless there are signs Beijing and Washington are willing to contain the fallout
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Beijing vowed on Thursday to take “resolute and powerful” measures to defend China’s territorial integrity following Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen’s meeting with US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, but observers expect the response to be subdued.
Describing the meeting as “high profile”, the Chinese foreign ministry said the Tsai-McCarthy talks seriously infringed upon China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and sent “an egregiously wrong signal to ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist forces”.
The meeting was also condemned by a wide range of agencies in Beijing, including the foreign affairs committee of the National People’s Congress, and the Communist Party’s Taiwan Work Office, which said Tsai and her Democratic Progressive Party were “pawns” for anti-Chinese forces.
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The defence ministry said the People’s Liberation Army would “stand by its duties, maintain a high level of readiness, resolutely defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity, and unwaveringly maintain peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait”.
Earlier, Taiwan’s defence ministry said it spotted a PLA carrier group led by the Shandong aircraft carrier sail through the Bashi Channel between the island and the Philippines, before reaching waters southeast of Taiwan.
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The USS Nimitz, a US Navy aircraft carrier, was also positioned about 400 nautical miles (740.8km) east of Taiwan, according to Taiwanese Defence Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng.
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