Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) offered rare praise for her Republican successor following his meeting with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen on Wednesday.
Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), flanked by a bipartisan group of lawmakers, met with Tsai in California in a visit meant to highlight the United States’s commitment to the island democracy.
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“I believe our bond is stronger now than at any time or point in my lifetime,” McCarthy said at a joint press conference with Tsai.
The meeting is reminiscent of Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan in the waning months of her speakership, a visit that provoked an angry response from Chinese Communist officials, who consider the self-ruling island part of its territory.
Pelosi released a brief statement applauding lawmakers after the meeting proceeded despite pressure from the Chinese government to scrap it.
“Today’s meeting between President Tsai of Taiwan and Speaker McCarthy is to be commended for its leadership, its bipartisan participation and its distinguished and historic venue,” she said.
The praise underscores the bipartisan consensus forming in Washington on the need to contain China. Both the ranking member and chairman of the House’s select committee on China attended the Wednesday meeting, and Tsai met with Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) in New York last week.
“Not very often does the world see Republicans and Democrats standing together on one issue,” McCarthy said on Wednesday. “One thing I would take pride in as an American — you’re watching your lawmakers stand together with both parties advocating greater democracy, with a plan to help deter any chance of a war in the future.”
The Taiwanese president made several stops on her “transit” through the U.S. as she returned from a diplomatic mission to Central America. Although the U.S. won’t meet with Taiwanese officials in a formal capacity as part of its “One China” policy, it has become routine for lawmakers to hold unofficial meetings with Taiwan’s leaders.
Nonetheless, Tsai’s visit with McCarthy marks the first time a Taiwanese president has met with a House speaker on American soil since 1979, when U.S. officials established diplomatic relations with China.
The meeting was full of symbolism. The two leaders delivered remarks at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library outside of Los Angeles, which McCarthy said epitomizes “the freedom and the commitment and the bond that’s only become stronger with the president with us today.”
McCarthy organized a separate press conference with lawmakers after meeting with Tsai, held in front of a piece of the Berlin Wall, a relic that marks the end of the Cold War.
McCarthy & bipartisan group speak in front of a piece of the Berlin Wall at the Reagan library after their meeting with President Tsai of Taiwan pic.twitter.com/qjWUQmYwHx
— Andrew Desiderio (@AndrewDesiderio) April 5, 2023
In remarks, McCarthy left the door open to making a trip to Taiwan himself, though he said he has no plans at this time. He struck a defiant tone amid warnings from China that it would consider such a visit a provocation.
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“I am the speaker of the House. There is no place that China is going to tell me where I can go or who I can speak to, whether you be foe or whether you be friend,” he said.
McCarthy declined to say whether he would invite Tsai to address Congress.
