Lawmakers shrug off China’s ‘saber rattling’ in push to harden Taiwan

As Beijing warned Thursday of “resolute measures” in response to Wednesday’s meeting between Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, a bipartisan group of lawmakers touched town in Taiwan promising to help harden the island against a potential Chinese invasion. 

Upon arriving in Taipei, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas), who is leading the congressional delegation, shrugged off China’s warnings and said he would be meeting with Tsai to talk about U.S. weapons shipments. 

“Being here, I think, is a signal to the Chinese Communist Party that the United States supports Taiwan, and that we’re going to harden Taiwan and we want them to think twice about invading,” he told reporters on the tarmac.

McCaul said that lawmakers had received threatening text messages regarding the trip and heard talk of a “Chinese escort” while in the air. 

“We’re not gonna let this intimidation … get to us,” he added. “That’s just really intimidation, saber rattling.”

McCarthy met with Tsai on Wednesday along with dozens of Democrats and Republicans at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Los Angeles before appearing with the Taiwanese president during a press conference.

McCarthy referred to the united front as being of the “greatest importance” in a Thursday interview with NBC News.

“You’ve watched in a house being very divided, united on this issue,” the speaker said, adding both parties “want to make sure that the world continues to foster peace, freedom and democracy.”

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told reporters on Thursday the U.S. was “conniving” with Taiwan against Beijing, calling it a “serious violation of the One China principle.”

“It seriously infringes upon China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and sends an egregiously wrong signal to the Taiwan independence separatist forces,” Mao said. “China will take strong and resolute measures to defend our sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

The Chinese embassy in Washington also sent messages to U.S. lawmakers warning them against visiting with Tsai.

Jacques deLisle, director of the Asia Program at the Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI), said the McCarthy-Tsai meeting signified American cohesion.

“The U.S. support for Taiwan has taken a significant step forward in the last several years,” deLisle said. “The significance of the [McCarthy meeting] was to say, ‘Hey, we’re all on the same page here. This really is bipartisan.’”

Beijing sees the self-governing island nation of Taiwan as historically part of the mainland under the One China principle, and the U.S. has warned it could force reunification in the near future, possibly by invading the country.

Washington recognizes Taiwan as part of China but maintains informal relations with the island nation under the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act and has armed and financially supported the country with trade and investments.

The U.S. was careful to refer to Tsai’s visit as “transit” so as not to cross the diplomatic line of formal recognition of the Taiwanese leader. 

State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel said during a briefing on Thursday that China should not escalate tensions.

“This is long-standing, there is precedent here and there is no reason to turn something consistent with policy, consistent with the One China policy, into something that it’s not,” he said.

Following the McCarthy-Tsai meeting, Taiwan said it spotted some Chinese navy vessels in waters around the island; however, Beijing has not signaled large-scale military drills as it did when former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) traveled to the island with a delegation in August. Pelosi became the highest-ranking U.S. official to set foot in the country in about 25 years.

China reacted more aggressively to Pelosi’s visit because of her direct travel to the island and her tense history with Beijing, according to deLisle from FPRI. 

A Taiwanese leader has also stopped over in the U.S. before to meet with lower ranking officials, meaning the McCarthy-Tsai meeting was less of a departure from the norm — even though McCarthy became the most senior American official to meet with a Taiwan president on U.S. soil in about 50 years. 

As fears of an invasion have grown, the U.S. is showing more and more support for Taiwan. Congress included $10 billion in security assistance for Taiwan over the next five years in last year’s National Defense Authorization Act.

U.S. officials across the country are also making more trips to Taiwan, with Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) planning a stopover later this month.

China may be stepping up its own diplomatic response to Washington. Possibly timed to coincide with the Tsai-McCarthy visit, former Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou arrived in China late last month for a 12-day visit. 

Ma, who was in office from 2008 to 2016, is a senior member of the Kuomintang opposition party, which favors closer ties with China but is not outright pro-Beijing. 

The visit marks the first time a former or current Taiwanese president traveled to China since 1949, when the former government of China fled to Taiwan, according to Reuters.

Taiwan is less than a year away from its own presidential election in January 2024, which could significantly change its dynamics with Beijing. 

DeLisle, from FPRI, said the tensions with China will be a dominant issue in that election. 

“We could see some ugly politics with Taiwan,” he said, ”and it’s going to be interesting to see how the U.S. and Beijing respond.”