Cina threatens retaliation of some kind when Tsai met with McCarthy

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy met with Taiwan president Tsai Ing-wen in California on Wednesday. Tsai warned that "democracy is under threat" during the meeting at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley. She is the first Taiwan president to meet with a House speaker in the United States, CNN reports. As you likely recall, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi traveled to Taiwan in August 2022, angering Beijing.

Meanwhile, a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers led by House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, landed in Taiwan on Thursday. Upon returning to Taiwan, Tsai is scheduled to meet with McCaul's delegation on Saturday, NBC News reports.

How has Beijing reacted? In response to Tsai's meeting with McCarthy, China's Foreign Affairs Ministry said it would take "resolute and forceful measures to defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity," ABC News reports.

China had previously threatened retaliation of some kind if Tsai met with McCarthy, and in response to the meeting, it launched new military drills, the BBC reports, sending warships into the waters around Taiwan. China fired missiles into those same waters following Pelosi's 2022 visit.

The Chinese aircraft carrier Shandong was about 200 nautical miles off Taiwan's east coast Wednesday, Taiwan Defence Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng told reporters, according to Reuters. Taiwanese warships were monitoring the carrier from about six miles away. "It is training, but the timing is quite sensitive, and what it is up to we are still studying," Chiu said. No aircraft were seen taking off from Shandong's deck, Chiu said. Still Taiwan "does not expect a large escalation in tensions," Reuters writes.

The U.S. Navy's Nimitz Carrier Strike Group is currently in the East China Sea, according to USNI News.