McCarthy meets with Taiwan's president, stresses relationship is stronger than ever

The long-awaited meeting between House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a bipartisan Congressional delegation and Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen took place on Wednesday.

The meeting was held at the Ronald Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California, and was attended by more than a dozen legislators, including California Democratic Representative Pete Aguilar.

At the start of the meeting, the Speaker of the House called the Taiwanese leader "a great friend to America" and added that he hoped that at the meeting they could find more ways to work together with Taiwan to strengthen "economic freedom, democracy, peace, and stability."

After the meeting, the political leaders appeared to be satisfied with the outcome of the gathering . McCarthy assured that now the bond between the two nations is "stronger" and Tsai Ing-wen thanked the United States for its support and stressed that the strength lies in unity.

"To preserve peace, we must be strong (...) We are stronger when we are together," the president added.

Tsai also referred to the threat posed by China, not only to the island but to democratic countries in general.

"We once again find ourselves in a world where democracy is under threat and the urgency of keeping the beacon of freedom shining cannot be understated," she said, while thanking the United States for its support.

The meeting took place in spite of threats from China

The Chinese regime had warned that they did not agree with this meeting taking place and that if it did, they would see it as a threat to their sovereignty. Days before the event, China even threatened to take "firm measures" toward Taiwan and the United States if the gathering took place.

"There is only one China in the world and Taiwan is an inalienable part of China (...) As the Chinese side has repeatedly stressed, we strongly oppose any form of interaction and official contact between the U.S. side and the Taiwanese authorities," expressed Mao Ning, China's Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman.

However, it is still unclear exactly what measures the Asian giant will take, but the White House tried to downplay the meeting, assuring that it was just a normal diplomatic act.

"This is not uncommon. It’s not official. And there’s no reason for them to react in any sort of aggressive manner because of it,” National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby said.