USA: The Financial Times reported that US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy will meet Taiwan President Tai Ing-wen in the US later this month.

Tai Ing-wen agreed to cancel a planned visit to the island after previous US delegations to Taipei had provoked negative reactions from Chinese officials.

Taiwanese officials told the Times on Monday that Tsai would meet the senior lawmaker during her trip to the United States in April, which will take her to both California and New York.

Also Read: Despite repeated warnings Pyongyang accused Seoul and Washington of continuing military provocations

An unnamed official claimed that China "is not in good shape right now", implying that McCarthy's trip to Taiwan could be risky.

The official noted his conversation with McCarthy's office and said, "We shared some intelligence about what the Chinese Communist Party has been doing recently and what kind of threats they pose." No specific mention was made of the kind of risk it might face."

McCarthy said last summer that if elected speaker, he would travel to the island. However, "to avoid an aggressive reaction from Beijing," the Times reported that McCarthy's team decided to meet in the US.

When Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taipei last August, Beijing began unprecedented military exercises in the air and sea around Taiwan, including a mock blockade of the island.

Also Read:  The UK government is looking into building its own high-altitude surveillance airships

Lower-ranking US delegations have visited Taiwan over the months, but those visits did not coincide with the war games. Nonetheless, Beijing, which considers the island part of its sovereign territory, has issued stern warnings as a result.

McCarthy's office declined to comment on the reported meeting with Tsai, but Taiwanese officials said she would visit the US sometime in April, and the Reagan Library in Southern California confirmed that the leader would visit during that visit. Will give a speech.

Since the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949, Taiwan has been self-governing, but it has never formally declared independence from China. Beijing strongly opposes any direct diplomatic contact between Taipei and other countries, some of which do so.

Despite several official visits to the island and "defensive" arms sales over the past few years, including those carried out during the Biden administration, Washington is not one of them.

Also Read:  Six Palestinians along with a wanted terrorist are killed by Israeli forces in a raid on Jenin

Chinese President Xi Jinping said last year that his country would "continue to strive for peaceful reunification with Taiwan", but insisted it would "never promise to renounce the use of force" to reclaim the disputed territory. will not".