President of Taiwan thanks the US for supporting her island | The USA Print

the leader of taiwanTsai Ing-wen, thanked the United States on Wednesday for the support provided to his island and stressed that to maintain peace it is necessary to “be strong.”

“To preserve peace we must be strong. We are stronger when we are together,” he told reporters along with the speaker of the US House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, with whom he had a controversial meeting that China has opposed.

The president also expressed her gratitude to the Republican legislator, assuring that the “warm reception” made it clear that taiwan “you are not alone”.

Paraphrasing former President Ronald Reagan (1981-1989), at whose presidential bookstore in Los Angeles the meeting was held, Tsai recalled that “freedom is never more than a generation away from extinction”, which is why it must be fought for and defended.” constantly”.

“It is no secret that the peace we have kept and the democracy we have worked hard to build are facing unprecedented challenges. We find ourselves again in a world where democracy is under threat,” he said.

Along these lines, he stressed that “in its defense of its way of life, Taiwan is grateful to have the United States by its side,” underlined his island’s commitment to the “status quo” of peace, and highlighted the joint projects that it has led to carried out with the North American country on issues of self-defense and the promotion of commercial and economic ties.

The meeting took place amid political tension with Chinawhich considered that the meeting was a threat to its sovereignty, for which days before it declared its “firm opposition” and warned that it would take “firm measures” in this regard.

For its part, the United States government asked China “not to overreact” and the Pentagon claimed on Wednesday that Tsai’s visit is not “official” and therefore China should not turn this matter into a crisis.

McCarthy took the opportunity to reiterate both before the press and in the networks the friendship with taiwan and assured that cooperation with its population will continue to expand “through dialogue and exchange.”

“I’m sure our bond is stronger now than at any time in my life (…) taiwan It is a successful democracy, a prosperous economy and a global leader in health and science,” said the leader of the Lower House since last January.

Therefore, he added, the United States “will fulfill its obligations and reiterate its commitment to shared values.”

In addition to McCarthy, Tsai met with a bipartisan group of US lawmakers at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California.

The president, who has also been in New York, traveled to California after her return from her trip to Central America, where she visited Belize and Guatemala, two of the thirteen countries that still maintain diplomatic ties with Taipei.

In August 2022, the visit to Taiwan of the then president of the US Legislature, Nancy Pelosi, angered Beijing, which described it as a “farce” and “deplorable treason”.

In response to the official’s trip, China imposed sanctions on Pelosi, suspended dialogue with the US in several important areas and deployed in the Strait of taiwan military maneuvers of an intensity unprecedented in decades.

The island is one of the biggest sources of conflict between China and the United States, mainly because Washington is Taiwan’s main arms supplier and would be its biggest military ally in the event of a war with China.

China claims sovereignty over taiwanwhich it considers a rebel province since the Kuomintang nationalists withdrew there in 1949, after losing the civil war against the communists.