Against the backdrop of AirForce One, U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy received Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen, whom he called “America’s important friend,” on Wednesday at a rare high-level meeting on U.S. soil.

The speaker of the US House of Representatives is second in line to the president in office, and no one—until yesterday—had met the Taiwanese president on US soil since the US severed official diplomatic relations. Due to unofficial US relations with Taiwan, Tsai’s transit was not classified as an official visit, to keep Washington within the long-standing “one China” policy.

Thus, speaking carefully to avoid unnecessary escalation of tensions with Beijing, Tsai and McCarthy avoided calls from US hardliners to take a more confrontational stance towards China in defense of a self-ruled Taiwan.

The two leaders stood side by side at a unity demonstration at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California and talked about their relationship.

“America’s support for the people of Taiwan will remain strong, unwavering and bipartisan,” McCarthy said at a news conference. The American official recalled President Reagan’s approach to achieving peace through a show of force in international relations and stressed that “this is a bipartisan meeting of members of Congress.”

For her part, Tsai warned: “It is no secret that today the peace we have preserved and the democracy we have worked hard to create are facing unprecedented challenges. We are once again in a world where democracy is under threat, and the urgent need to keep the beacon of freedom open cannot be underestimated.”

As part of the One China policy, the US recognizes China’s position that Taiwan is part of China, but has never formally recognized Beijing’s claim to the island of 23 million people.

Waiting for Beijing’s reaction

In China, renowned commentator Hu Xijin wrote on his widely acclaimed Twitter account that “Mainland China will definitely react and make Cai’s regime lose far more than it can gain from this meeting.”

Hu, who expressed concern over House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan last year, also wrote that “the US side will certainly have no real advantage.”

China claims self-governing Taiwan as its own and does not exclude the use of force to take the island under Chinese control if necessary. Taiwan strongly rejects China’s claim to sovereignty and says that only its own citizens can decide their own future.

Source: AP, Reuters.