China retaliates against Taiwanese President Tsai’s US visit by sanctioning Reagan library, think tank

China has responded to ongoing U.S.-Taiwanese diplomacy by putting sanctions on a group of American organizations, including the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

The sanctions were announced Friday following Chinese outrage at a Wednesday meeting between House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California.

“The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute is proud of its decision to host a bipartisan meeting between Members of the United States House of Representatives, led by Speaker Kevin McCarthy, and Tsai Ing-wen, the President of Taiwan, and her delegation,” said David Trulio, president and CEO of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute. “We will not shy away from living up to President Reagan’s expectation that the library bearing his name be a ‘dynamic intellectual forum.'”

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Alongside the library, China also placed sanctions on the Hudson Institute, a Washington, D.C., think tank, for “providing a platform and convenience to Taiwan separatist activities.” 

“We were proud to honor Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen last week for her great courage and clear-eyed determination to resist tyranny,” Hudson President and CEO John Walters said in a statement Friday. “The Chinese Communist Party has a long history of attempting to silence voices, domestically and abroad, that oppose its international aggression and its oppression of the Chinese people. It has not worked before and it will not work now.”

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Tsai received an award from the Hudson Institute during her visit to California.

Walters continued, “We stand firmly with Taiwan and against the CCP and its ruthless, genocidal policies and we remain steadfast in promoting the security, freedom, and prosperity of America and its allies.”

The Chinese government announced that members of the organizations are now barred from the country and any financial assets inside China belonging to the sanctioned groups will be frozen.

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The U.S. government maintains a policy of “strategic ambiguity” regarding the China-Taiwan conflict.

The “One China” policy acknowledges that Beijing lays claim to Taiwan but does not endorse China’s claim. 

The U.S. remains Taiwan’s key provider of military and defense assistance – though Washington does not explicitly say whether it will come to Taiwan’s aid in the case of a conflict with China.

Taiwan and China split 74 years ago following a civil war and have no official relations.