McCarthy Meets Taiwan’s Leader

“Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen gathered alongside a bipartisan group of House lawmakers Wednesday outside of Los Angeles, projecting a united democratic front that brushed aside stern warnings from China that the meeting not go forward,” Politico reports.

“The high-profile confab, which occurred at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, marks a concrete step in furtherance of one of McCarthy’s top priorities: pushing back on the influence of China. McCarthy becomes the highest U.S. official to meet with Taiwan’s leader on domestic soil since the U.S. established formal diplomatic ties with China in 1979.”

Punchbowl News: “This was McCarthy’s first big foreign-policy foray as speaker. But it was also a chance for him to prove that, on one of the most vexing contemporary global challenges, lawmakers can show a united front.”