May 6, 2024
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — China retaliated for the United States House speaker's meeting with the Taiwanese president by announcing sanctions Friday against the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and other organizations, adding to strains over the self-governed island democracy Beijing claims as part of its territory.
Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy held talks Wednesday with President Tsai Ing-wen at the Reagan library in Simi Valley, California, in defiance of Chinese warnings. McCarthy joined a growing series of foreign legislators who have met Tsai in a show of support for Taiwan in the face of Chinese intimidation.
U.S.-Chinese relations have sunk to their lowest level in decades due to disputes over the status of Taiwan, which split with China in 1949 after a civil war, as well as security, technology and Beijing's treatment of Hong Kong and Muslim ethnic minorities.
The mainland's ruling Communist Party says Taiwan is destined to reunite with China, by force if necessary, and has no right to conduct foreign relations. President Xi Jinping's government says contact with foreign officials will encourage Taiwanese who want formal independence, a step Beijing says would lead to war.
China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced the Reagan library and the Hudson Institute, a Washington think tank, were sanctioned for “providing a platform and convenience to Taiwan separatist activities.” It said Chinese institutions were prohibited from having any cooperation or contact with them.
An email seeking comment from the library wasn’t immediately answered Thursday night. Hudson Institute President John P. Walters said in a statement that China's 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. We stand firmly with Taiwan and against the CCP and its ruthless, genocidal policies.”
Tsai accepted a leadership award from the Hudson Institute as part of her U.S. trip and gave a speech about Taiwan’s challenges in regional security.
The ministry also cited Walters; Sarah May Stern, chair of the Hudson Institute board of directors; John Heubusch, former executive director of the Reagan Foundation, and Joanne M. Drake, the foundation's chief administrator.
The ministry said they were barred from visiting China and any property or financial assets belonging to them in China would be frozen.
“We will take resolute measures to punish the ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist forces and their actions, and resolutely safeguard our country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” the Chinese Cabinet's Taiwan Affairs Office said in a statement Thursday.
