Tsai Ing-wen Photo:VCG

Multiple Chinese authorities including China's top legislature, the Taiwan Work Office of CPC Central Committee, Chinese defense ministry and Chinese foreign ministry firmly opposed and condemned the latest meeting between the regional leader of China's Taiwan island and US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Wednesday in California, vowing to take resolute and effective measures to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity, in response to the seriously erroneous acts of collusion between the US and Taiwan secessionist authorities. 

Chinese experts believe that the US has been taking extremely destructive actions to show that as part of its China policy, it will continue playing the "Taiwan card" deliberately to destroy the environment for China's development. Driven by its all-around strategic competition and confrontation with China, US insidious manipulation on the Taiwan question is seeking to distort and replace the generally recognized one-China principle, igniting more conflicts with China and leading already-strained China-US relations into a more difficult situation, experts said. 

While McCarthy becomes the highest US official to meet Taiwan's regional leader on US domestic soil since 1979 when China and US established formal diplomatic relations, some experts warned that under a raft of Taiwan-related bills passed by the US Congress with strong bipartisan support, the political interactions between the US and Taiwan have been elevated, continuing provoking China and walking down on the dangerous path of breaking through the bottom line of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the US. "Such tendency toward bringing so-called US-Taiwan relations back to the status before 1979 is unacceptable," some experts said. 

McCarthy and a bipartisan congressional delegation met Wednesday with Tsai in Simi Valley, California, stressing the importance of "the relationship between the two sides to economic freedom, peace and stability in the region," Bloomberg reported. 

McCarthy later said the US must continue arms sales to Taiwan while also strengthening economic cooperation, particularly on trade and technology, according to the media report. 

Although some US media outlets noted that "neither McCarthy nor Tsai mentioned China by name at a joint appearance," Chinese officials and experts said the meeting itself is a serious provocation that will draw a firm and resolute response from the Chinese side as such acts have gravely violated the one-China principle and the provisions of the three China-US joint communiques, seriously infringed upon China's sovereignty and territorial integrity, and sent seriously wrong signals to the separatist forces for "Taiwan independence."

Four Chinese authorities including the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National People's Congress, the Taiwan Work Office of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, China's Ministry of National Defense and China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs as well as the Chinese Embassy in the US issued the statements on early Thursday morning in condemning Tsai's "transit" trip through the US and her meeting with US officials. 

The People's Liberation Army (PLA) of China will stand by its responsibility and mission and remain on high alert. The PLA will resolutely safeguard China's sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as the peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, the Chinese Defense Ministry said. 

In response to the seriously erroneous acts of collusion between the US and Taiwan, China will take resolute and effective measures to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said. 

The meeting not only damaged China-US relations and undermining the existing political foundation but also makes the situation in the Taiwan Straits more tense, some experts said. It also showed that Tsai, the DPP authorities and other "Taiwan independence" secessionists do not hesitate to be the "running dogs" of the US and want to engage in cross-Straits confrontation by gambling with the lives of 23 million people of the Taiwan island, experts said.

"McCarthy meeting Tsai during her transit in the US is a typical dangerous move that created divisions and confrontations in the Asia Pacific," Li Haidong, a professor at the China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times on Thursday. 

In recent years, the US has been seeking to distort and replace the true meaning of the one-China principle, engaging in destructive activities in manipulating the Taiwan question, which also showed that the essence of the US' China policy is confrontation and conflict, Li said, noting that the continuous provocation of the US side aims at provoking China's red line, paving the way for more intense conflicts with China in the future. 

While some Western media commentators pointed out that the Tsai-McCarthy meeting would further escalate the US-China tensions, Chinese experts see the bilateral relations - already at a low point - will surely face more obstacles, and the US continues playing the "Taiwan card" and constant hyping of the matter will affect the overall atmosphere for the bilateral relations and interactions. 

The Taiwan question is at the core of China's core interests, the bedrock of the political foundation of China-US relations, and the first red line that should never be crossed in this bilateral relationship, the Chinese Embassy in the US said. 

The Congress, as a part of the US government, is obligated to strictly abide by the foreign policy that the latter has adopted and committed to, the embassy said. McCarthy is the third highest ranking official in the US government, and his meeting with Tsai on the US territory is a grave mistake that elevates the official interactions and substantive relationship between the US and Taiwan. 

"Using the Taiwan question for a show with political purposes, US politicians have acted highly irresponsibly and turned themselves into problem-makers for China-US relationship and the situation at the Taiwan Strait," the embassy said. 

"The US Congress has indeed become a source of negative policies toward China, echoing the US' containment and confrontation strategies, especially on the Taiwan question, ranging from arms sales to official interactions," Diao Daming, an associate professor at the Renmin University of China in Beijing, told the Global Times on Thursday, noting that going too far and extreme to underscore lawmakers' firm and harsh position toward China and to highlight the "weakness" of the Biden administration with the purpose of partisan rivalry. 

"Now the China-US relations is at a low point, which could have been changed through high-level interactions, but such erroneous moves by the US side will affect the possible improvement of the bilateral ties," he said.