SIMI VALLEY, California--U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy hosted Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen in California on Wednesday, becoming the most senior U.S. figure to meet a Taiwanese leader on U.S. soil in decades and stressed the need to accelerate arms deliveries to Taiwan in the face of rising threats from China. McCarthy - the third highest ranking official in the U.S. leadership hierarchy - and other Republican and Democratic lawmakers met Tsai at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California despite threats of retaliation from China, which claims self-ruled Taiwan as its own. A China foreign ministry spokesperson quickly denounced the meeting, accusing the United States of colluding with separatists seeking "Taiwan independence" and saying that it has been breaching its commitments over the island. Maritime authorities in China's Fujian province launched a special joint patrol and inspection operation in the Taiwan Strait that includes moves to board ships. Taiwan said it had lodged a strong protest with China about the move. Tsai thanked the U.S. Congress for standing by Taiwan when democracy was under threat and cited former U.S. President Reagan saying that "to preserve peace, we must be strong." The meeting came at a time of deteriorating U.S.-Chinese relations - the worst since the countries established diplomatic relations in 1979, according to many analysts - and rising concern among Western officials that China could attempt to take Taiwan by force in the coming years. China has vowed to bring Taiwan under its control and staged war games around the island last August following a visit by then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. On Wednesday, Taiwan's defense ministry said a Chinese aircraft carrier group was in the waters off the island's southeast coast ahead of the meeting between Tsai and McCarthy. While Washington has no official relations with Taiwan, it is bound by law to provide the island with the means to defend itself and has stepped up interactions with Taipei in recent years as Beijing's pressure on the island has increased. Standing with Tsai in front of a blue-and-white Boeing aircraft that Reagan flew on as president in the 1980s, McCarthy called the friendship between the people of Taiwan and America "a matter of profound importance to the free world." Speaking at a later news conference alongside Republican and Democratic lawmakers who took part in the meeting with Tsai, McCarthy said they had discussed how to speed up weapons deliveries to Taiwan. "We must continue the arms sales to Taiwan and make sure such sales reach Taiwan on a very timely basis," he said, adding that he believed there was bipartisan agreement on this. "Second, we must strengthen our economic cooperation, particularly with trade and technology." Mike Gallagher, Republican chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, said after the meeting he would like to look for ways get Harpoon anti-ship missiles to Taiwan ahead of those scheduled to go to Saudi Arabia. U.S. officials say weapons such as the Harpoon missile are far more important for Taiwan's defense than the heavy weaponry, including tanks and aircraft, that the island's military has traditionally purchased from the United States.
