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Taiwan confirms Tsai Ing-wen to make US stopover, hits back at Beijing over McCarthy meeting warning
- Taipei official says banquets are being prepared for Taiwanese president’s US stay on her way to and from Central America
- Island’s foreign ministry says mainland China has ‘no right to finger-point’ after Beijing warns against meeting between Tsai and US House speaker
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Lawrence Chungin Taipei
Taiwanese officials confirmed the island’s President Tsai Ing-wen will make a stop in the US, and hit back at Beijing for its fiery words over a planned meeting between Tsai and US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
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Tsai is expected to transit through New York and Los Angeles on her way to and from a visit to the island’s Central American allies of Guatemala and Belize. She is reportedly planning for a meeting with McCarthy in California, which Beijing has warned would violate its sovereignty on the grounds that Taiwan is a part of China.
“China has no right to finger-point about our contacts and interactions with other countries,” said Douglas Hsu, head of the Taiwanese foreign ministry’s department of North American affairs, on Thursday.
“President Tsai is the head of the Republic of China in Taiwan, and it is unbearable for China to smear her with foul intention,” he said in response to a warning by Beijing about the consequences of a meeting between Tsai and McCarthy.
McCarthy confirmed on Tuesday that he would meet Tsai in the US this year instead of Taiwan, according to Bloomberg.
The senior Republican also emphasised that the meeting did not preclude a later visit to the self-governed island, Bloomberg reported.
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The report drew a harsh warning from Beijing that the US should not “underestimate the strong determination of the Chinese government and people to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity”.
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