Speaking carefully to avoid unnecessarily escalating tensions with Beijing, Tsai and McCarthy steered clear of calls from hard-liners in the U.S. for a more confrontational stance toward China in defense of self-ruled Taiwan.
The two leaders stood side by side in a show of unity at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, acknowledging China's threats against the island government but speaking only of maintaining longstanding U.S. policy.The moment was historic - a U.S. House speaker meeting Wednesday with the president of Taiwan for a rare visit on American soil, a high-profile encounter designed to boost support for the island government but already drawing blowback from an enraged China.
"I think it's a useful thing to communicate to a country - that's under enormous pressure - that they have real allies," Gingrich said ahead of the meeting. The Taiwanese, he said, will "see it as a morale boost." The session with McCarthy, who as House speaker is second in line of succession to the president, was Tsai's most high-level U.S. visit during her visit, which also included a stop in New York last week. At that time, she met Friday with three U.S. senators - Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, and Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., all members of the Senate Armed Services Committee -- and with House Democratic leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries.
"Of course, Congress is part of that," she said. Because the lack of formal diplomatic relations greatly limits any interaction between Taiwan and U.S. leaders, "it becomes even more important that they have meetings with members of Congress." Unlike Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, who used her speaker's gavel as a calling card to bring U.S. influence and aid around the globe, McCarthy is focusing his speakership more inward on the domestic needs of Americans.
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