China issued a new warning to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy not to “repeat the disastrous mistakes of the past” by meeting with Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen.

China, which claims Taiwan as its own territory, held massive military exercises around the island last August after then-Democratic President Nancy Pelosi visited the capital Taipei.

Tsai will make what is officially called a “transit” from Los Angeles on his way back to Taipei after a trip to Central America. The United States says such shutdowns are common practice and there is no reason for China to overreact. But the Chinese consulate in Los Angeles called it “false” that it was a transit.

In recent years, tensions have intensified between China and the United States over the future of the island.

The U.S. is required by law to sell arms to Taiwan in self-defense, although official diplomatic relations with Taipei were severed in 1979 when it recognized the Beijing government. Due to the US’s unofficial relationship with Taiwan, Cai’s transit is not considered an official visit, to keep the US under the longstanding “one China” policy.

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.

Military exercises and threats

Speaking to reporters in Beijing on Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning said China would closely follow developments and defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity resolutely and vigorously without elaborating.

Although Taiwan did not report any unusual Chinese movements ahead of the meeting, the Chinese military continued to operate around the island.

The Taiwan Ministry of Defense said on Tuesday morning that in the previous 24 hours it had detected nine Chinese military aircraft in an air defense reconnaissance zone, in the area between Taiwan’s southwest coast and the Taiwan-controlled Prat Islands in the upper South China Sea. .

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.

According to Reuters