Chinese nationals hold a board saying "Tsai Ing-wen is big traitor of China" to protest Tsai's transit trip on March 29, 2023 outside the hotel where she was staying in Manhattan, New York. Photo: VCG

The latest meeting between the regional leader of China's Taiwan island and US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in the US state of California ignited the anger of more residents in the island of Taiwan, with many lashing out that the move by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to seek "Taiwan independence" and its collusion with US politicians have aggravated the cross-Straits situation and put the island a step closer to an abyss of clashes. 

On Thursday, one day after Tsai Ing-wen's meeting with McCarthy, dozens of political and civil groups in the island started a joint movement to condemn the provocation and poured out indignation with Tsai, for she "betrayed people in the island" and sacrificed their lives and security to play as a chess piece in the US proxy war, according to a statement the Global Times got from one of the initiators - the Cross-Straits Peace Forum. 

Tsai's and McCarthy's meeting is "bringing a wolf into the room," which is the root to ignite a new round of cross-Straits crisis, said the joint statement. 

Under the excuse of "transit," Tsai visited the US and met with McCarthy and other American politicians, which severely violated the one-China principle, pushed anti-China collusion and intentionally provoked the Chinese mainland to deteriorate the cross-Straits situation. Tsai's move is intended to cooperate with US politicians' destruction plan of the island to contain China and drag the island into a conflict, read the statement. 

The secessionists in the island are soliciting US support and interference to contain China. People in the island have a better understanding of US hegemony and its purpose of using separatists to incite regional tensions and make profits for its military-industrial complex and politicians, Wang Wu-lang, secretary-general of the Cross-Straits Peace Forum, told the Global Times on Thursday.  

Wang noted that US arms sales to the island have worried the local residents and also exposed its lies of "protecting the island." The US is weaponizing the island with the "porcupine strategy," which is pushing the people in the island to the battlefield.  

On Wednesday, speaking at a news conference alongside Republican and Democratic lawmakers who took part in the meeting with Tsai, McCarthy said that they had discussed how to speed up weapons deliveries to Taiwan, Reuters reported. 

Many netizens in the island expressed their opposition to Tsai's meeting with McCarthy, with many worried that the island is taking "one step further to conflict." 

Some netizens criticized that McCarthy and other US politicians cared nothing about the island but only their own political interests, and their "promises" to the island are also lip service that can only fool the DPP authorities. 

Several dozen political groups will stage a protest on Friday outside the Taoyuan Airport in Taipei as Tsai's plane lands. 

Given the lessons from the previous severe situation, more people in the island have realized that "Taiwan independence" is a dead end and will bring nothing but disaster to the people, said Wang, calling for more people in the island to oppose secessionist actions, and to defend the one-China principle as reunification is the only way to realize long-term peace across the Straits.