On the eve of the likely Wednesday April 5 meeting in California between Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, and leader of the separatist authorities on the island of Taiwan, Tsai Ing-wen, an article in Global Times says that the provocative meeting will only exacerbate tensions between the United States and China at a time when cooperation is needed—especially in light of the “messy economic situation” in the U.S..
Global Times describes attempts covered in transatlantic media outlets to downplay the significance of the meeting between McCarthy and Tsai, citing a Monday article in The Hill which characterized the meeting as a “careful exercise,” and another article in Bloomberg from Friday which said that the Biden administration is going to “unprecedented lengths to play down the importance” of Tsai’s visit to the U.S. this week, as officials “try to keep an already soured relationship with China from getting any worse.”
McCarthy, however, has broadly hinted that he intends to follow up his California “in transit” meeting with Tsai (who is presumably stopping through Los Angeles on her way back from Central America), with a full-scale visit to Taiwan itself in the weeks or months ahead.
As for the current Tsai trip, a Beijing-based expert on international relations who asked for anonymity told Global Times: “But her trip is not finished yet, so we still need to pay attention to what happens in the coming days. The reaction from the Chinese mainland depends on how provocative Tsai’s activities are… in other words, if there are any countermeasures, they might be seen after Tsai completely finishes her activities in the U.S..”
