Taiwan Won't Let China Determine 'Red Lines,' Official Says

Taiwan would welcome a future visit by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and would not allow China to dictate its relations with the United States, a senior adviser to Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen said on Monday.

Wellington Koo said the meeting in early April between McCarthy and Tsai, which took place in California instead of Taipei, was a "reasonable arrangement" for both sides and showed a degree of restraint. Beijing considers Taiwan part of Chinese territory and had sought to head off the talks.

"If McCarthy really wants to come, we would still welcome him, just like we did Pelosi," Tsai's national security adviser said of last August's high-profile visit to Taiwan by the previous House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

"McCarthy has not announced such a plan, but if he really wants to come, we would welcome it, because [China] cannot be allowed to draw red lines," Koo told political commentator Frances Huang in a livestreamed interview with online outlet Z.Media.

Taiwan Won't Let China Draw Red Lines—Official
President Tsai Ing-wen of Taiwan, left, and Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) stand together in the Air Force One Pavilion at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library after making statements to the press on... Mario Tama/Getty Images

Last year's visit by Pelosi—the first by a sitting House speaker in a quarter century—drew a provocative response from China, which conducted days of war games and fired ballistic missiles over Taiwan. It reacted to last month's talks by simulating a blockade of the island.

At the time, McCarthy himself refused to rule out the possibility of leading a delegation to Taipei in the future: "I don't have any current plans, but that doesn't mean I will not go."

"I am the speaker of the House. There's no place that China's gonna tell me where I can go or who I can speak to," he said.

The Republican leader's office didn't return an emailed question about his upcoming travel plans ahead of publication.

Taiwan Won't Let China Draw Red Lines—Official
This image published by President Tsai Ing-wen of Taiwan on April 8, 2023, shows national security adviser Wellington Koo, second from right, attending a security briefing in Taipei, Taiwan. Tsai Ing-wen/Facebook

Koo, who was appointed head of Taiwan's National Security Council in May 2020 as Tsai began her second term, dismissed the intense focus on the year 2027, which some American and Taiwanese officials have suggested could represent a hard deadline for a Chinese attack on the island.

"We do not want to participate in timeline predictions," said Koo. "Our main aim, if China really does have such designs, is to indefinitely postpone these designs, by not provoking, not acting rashly, and by maintaining the status quo of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait."

He said: "This status quo is not only our responsibility; it's a shared responsibility of the world, including the U.S. and other like-minded countries. [China] will naturally recognize that it would have to pay an unbearable price for any such decision, and it will indefinitely postpone its timeline."

Koo laughed off suggestions that the U.S. military could bomb manufacturing plants run by Taiwan's TSMC—maker of the world's most advanced microchips—to stop the technology from falling into Beijing's hands.

"If Taiwan is attacked, it's not TSMC that is attacked. If Taiwan is blockaded or attacked, it is conceivable that Taiwan's manufacturing will stop and it will be difficult to export TSMC's chips. That will cause irreversible major damage to the global economy," he said, describing it as a matter of economic security.

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About the writer


John Feng is Newsweek's contributing editor for Asia based in Taichung, Taiwan. His focus is on East Asian politics. He ... Read more

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