Tsai-McCarthy meeting: Beijing promises to “firmly defend its sovereignty”

China said on Tuesday ” firmly opposed at the scheduled meeting between Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy and Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, promising to ” firmly defend its sovereignty “.

The Taiwanese leader, from an independence party and as such a pet peeve of Beijing, plans to make a stopover in the United States on her return from a diplomatic tour of Central America. Republican Party member Kevin McCarthy confirmed he would meet with Tsai Ing-wen in California on Wednesday.

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China will (…) firmly defend its national sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Mao Ning, spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs

” China is firmly opposed (…) to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, the third figure in the American administration, meeting Tsai Ing-wen “Said Mao Ning, a spokeswoman for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. ” China will closely monitor developments and firmly defend its national sovereignty and territorial integrity. “, she underlined during a regular press conference.

China considers the island of Taiwan, with a population of 23 million, to be one of its provinces, which it has yet to manage to reunify with the rest of its territory since the end of the civil war. China in 1949. The United States recognized the People’s Republic of China in 1979 and should theoretically have no official contact with the Republic of China (Taiwan), under the ” one china principle defended by Beijing.

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Last August, Nancy Pelosi, then president of the American House of Representatives, had nevertheless visited Taiwan, provoking the ire of China which had carried out in retaliation for very important military exercises around the island.