{"id":151702,"date":"2023-04-04T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-04-04T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mediaintel.asia\/?p=916207"},"modified":"2023-04-04T08:00:00","modified_gmt":"2023-04-04T00:00:00","slug":"taiwan-defies-china-pressure-before-meeting-u-s-house-speaker-kevin-mccarthy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chinalegalblog.com\/en\/2023\/04\/04\/taiwan-defies-china-pressure-before-meeting-u-s-house-speaker-kevin-mccarthy\/","title":{"rendered":"Taiwan defies China pressure before meeting U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"MediaIntel.Asia\"<\/a><\/div>\n

Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen delivers a speech at the National Assembly of Belize, in Belmopan, Belize, in this handout picture released on April 4.TAIWAN PRESIDENTIAL OFFICE\/Reuters
\nTaiwan pushed back against threats of retaliation by China, ahead of an expected meeting between the island\u2019s president and the U.S. House speaker Wednesday that will underscore her government\u2019s claim to sovereignty.
\nPresident Tsai Ing-wen is finishing a tour of Taiwan\u2019s remaining diplomatic allies in Latin America, Belize and Guatemala. The most politically sensitive part of her trip will be a meeting with U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in Los Angeles while she transits on her way back home.
\nChina views Taiwan as its own territory and treats any dealings between U.S. and Taiwanese officials as a challenge to its sovereignty. Tsai\u2019s tour is a bid to demonstrate that her government has international support.
\nBelize and Guatemala are two of just 13 countries that formally recognize Taiwan, a number that has dipped as China has put pressure on and funnelled money into isolating the island. Tsai\u2019s Latin American trip comes just a week after Honduras announced it was cutting ties with Taiwan in favour of China, potentially prompted by a $300 million hydroelectric dam project in central Honduras built by a Chinese company.
\nLast week, and again on Monday, China threatened with countermeasures if Tsai met with McCarthy. The Chinese Consulate in Los Angeles issued a statement Monday saying it opposed any \u201cany form of contact\u201d between Taiwan authorities and the U.S.
\n\u201cThe reality and current situation that both sides of the (Taiwan) Strait belong to one China is very clear,\u201d the statement said.
\nA spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said at a daily news briefing Tuesday that China \u201cwill closely follow the developments and resolutely defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity.\u201d
\nTaiwan\u2019s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that it has never been part of China, and that China\u2019s recent criticism has become increasingly \u201cabsurd.\u201d
\n\u201cTaiwan, the Republic of China, is a sovereign country, and has the right to make its own determination in developing relations with other countries in the world,\u201d it said in a statement. \u201cIt does not accept interference or suppression by any country for any reason, and will not limit itself because of intimidation or interference.\u201d
\nThe United States\u2019 longstanding \u201cone-China\u201d policy acknowledges that the Chinese claim Taiwan as their territory. However, the U.S. does not endorse that claim and remains Taiwan\u2019s most important provider of military hardware and other defence assistance.
\nChina has repeatedly asserted its claim to Taiwan, though Taiwan maintains its own democratic system of government since the sides split after a civil war in 1949.
\nKeeping up the military pressure, China\u2019s People\u2019s Liberation Army sent 20 warplanes toward Taiwan Monday to Tuesday as well as three warships in the latest round of exercises, which have increased significantly in recent years.
\nChina regularly sends warplanes around the island and has at times seemingly used the exercises as a demonstration of its ire.
\nLast December, China sent 71 planes and seven ships toward Taiwan in a 24-hour display of force after it expressed anger at Taiwan-related provisions in a U.S. annual defence spending bill.
\nAnd last year, China responded to a visit by then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan with the largest live-fire drills in decades that included firing a missile over the island, which had landed in Japan\u2019s exclusive economic zone.
\nThe PLA\u2019s increased military activity near Taiwan has raised concerns among regional governments, and also drawn greater international attention and rhetorical support for Taiwan\u2019s defence. U.S. legislators have also started visiting Taiwan at a greater frequency, as anti-China sentiment and concerns over China\u2019s strategic position grows in Congress.<\/p>\n

This data comes from MediaIntel.Asia's Media Intelligence and Media Monitoring Platform<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen delivers a speech at the National Assembly of Belize, in Belmopan, Belize, in this handout picture released on April 4.TAIWAN PRESIDENTIAL OFFICE\/Reuters
\nTaiwan pushed back against threats of retaliation by China, ahea…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":253,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[639,144,586,194,64,484,1367],"tags":[2210,10355,3472,1696,10384,3610,10557,10315,2240,10351],"class_list":["post-151702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-california","category-china","category-economy","category-news-chinese-law","category-taiwan","category-united-states","category-usa","tag-america","tag-army","tag-chinese","tag-congress","tag-consulate","tag-diplomacy","tag-latin-america","tag-media-intelligence","tag-military","tag-war"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinalegalblog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151702"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinalegalblog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinalegalblog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinalegalblog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/253"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinalegalblog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151702"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinalegalblog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151702\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":151703,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinalegalblog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151702\/revisions\/151703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinalegalblog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinalegalblog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinalegalblog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}