U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy will host a meeting with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen on Wednesday in California, his office said.
A statement released Monday by his office finally confirmed the widely expected meeting that is likely to provoke an angry response from China, which has threatened "resolute countermeasures" against the United States if it happens.
The brief statement said the meeting will be bipartisan and it will take place at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. Tsai is now on a 10-day tour of Central America, which involves transit through the United States at a time when tensions between Washington and Beijing run high.
A spokesperson from China's Consulate General in Los Angeles criticized the meeting between Tsai and McCarthy, the third-highest-ranking U.S. official, calling it "another serious violation of the one-China principle."
It will "greatly hurt the national sentiments of the 1.4 billion Chinese people" and "undoubtedly further damage China-U.S. relations, and even strengthen the strong determination of the Chinese people to unite and fight for national reunification," the spokesperson added.
At a press conference in Beijing on Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning urged Washington not to arrange any meeting between Tsai and U.S. political figures. "The Chinese side will closely monitor the situation as it develops and resolutely defend our sovereignty and territorial integrity," she warned.
The U.S. House speaker is second in line to succeed the president, after the vice president.
Bilateral relations became tense after McCarthy's Democratic predecessor Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan last August. The move led to China freezing military communication channels between the two countries.
China, which regards Taiwan as part of its territory, also conducted large-scale military exercises in areas encircling the self-ruled democratic island. The retaliatory move included the firing of ballistic missiles, some of which fell into Japan's exclusive economic zone.
McCarthy, a Republican, had earlier expressed hope to visit Taiwan if he was elected to the top leadership post in the U.S. House.
Tsai last had a stopover in the United States in 2019. U.S. officials have repeatedly stressed a trip in which a Taiwanese leader transits the country is not extraordinary and urged China not to use it as a "pretext" to step up military activity in the Taiwan Strait.
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