United States House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy welcomed Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen in California on Wednesday despite Beijing's warning against the meeting, making McCarthy the highest-ranking US representative to meet with Taiwan's leader in America since 1979.
The House speaker welcomed Tsai to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley on the US west coast. The Taiwanese president's visit comes just a week after she conferred with a group of US lawmakers.
Previously, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on China not to use Tsai's transit visit to inflame tensions between Washington and Beijing, emphasizing that similar engagements between the US and Taiwan are "nothing new" and have occurred for years.
