China warns it will not ‘sit idly by’ over US lawmakers meeting with Taiwan

China, which has been threatening to retaliate if House Speaker Kevin McCarthy follows through with his plan to meet Taiwan’s president Wednesday, upped the ante in a letter to Congress on the eve of the confab — declaring Beijing will not “sit idly by” and urging McCarthy to cancel the sit-down.

Still stinging from the visit by former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to Taiwan last year, the Chinese embassy’s liaison to Congress sent an email Tuesday warning of the consequences if McCarthy (R-Calif.) and a bipartisan group of lawmakers meet with Tsai Ing-wen at the Ronald Reagan Library in Simi Valley, Calif.

“I have to point out that China will not sit idly by in the face of a blatant provocation and will most likely take necessary and resolute actions in response to the unwanted situation. Let’s work together to prevent such a thing from happening,” Li Xiang wrote in the message obtained by Punchbowl News. 

Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-Iowa), whose office received the email, called it a “pathetic threat” from China’s ruling Communist Party and said it will not stop her from attending the meeting. 

“We will relentlessly stand up for freedom and with Taiwan, and we are never going to cower. My message back to them is this: I look forward to meeting with President Tsai and reaffirming our commitment to Taiwan and freedom-loving nations everywhere,” Hinson told the outlet.

McCarthy and 17 Democratic and Republican lawmakers are expected to meet with Tsai.

The gathering comes at a low point in relations between Beijing and Washington over China’s increasingly aggressive military stance against self-governing Taiwan, Xi Jinping’s visit with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Moscow last month and the Chinese spy balloon flight over a large swath of the United States in February. 

Taiwan’s defense ministry said Wednesday that China had launched military exercises led by an aircraft carrier group in the Taiwan Strait.

China also staged war games in the waters off Taiwan in response to Pelosi’s visit to Taipei this past August. 

The meeting with the lawmakers is part of Tsai’s swing through the US and Central America. She held a video conference to review the situation with Taiwanese security officials in Belize on Tuesday before leaving for California. 

Secretary of State Antony Blinken cautioned Beijing not to use Tsai’s visit as a “pretext” to pressure Taiwan.

“Beijing should not use the transits as an excuse to take any actions to ratchet up tensions, to further push at changing the status quo,” he told reporters in Brussels Wednesday.

Tsai met last week with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and a small group of senators, including Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) and Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) in New York City.

Tsai’s meeting with McCarthy, the third in line for the presidency, is her most high-level visit in the US. 

With Post wires