Taiwan President Starts Sensitive U.S. Stopover; China Warns Against Meetings

stopover on Wednesday, vowing en route not to let external pressure prevent the island from engaging with the world after China threatened retaliation if she met U.S.

Taiwan's armed forces say they are watching for any Chinese moves when Tsai is abroad.Tsai is en route to Guatemala and Belize, two of the few countries that recognise Taiwan diplomatically.

Taiwan disputes this.Taiwan is China's most sensitive territorial issue and a major bone of contention with Washington, which, like most countries, maintains only unofficial ties with Taipei.

law to provide the island with the means to defend itself and it facilitates unofficial stopover visits.China's Taiwan Affairs Office spokesperson Zhu Fenglian said in Beijing that if Tsai met with McCarthy, China would "definitely take measures to resolutely fight back."Xu Xueyuan, charge d'affaires at China's embassy in Washington, told reporters such a meeting "could lead to another serious confrontation in the China-U.S.

officials said Tsai would meet Laura Rosenberger, chair at the Washington headquarters of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), a U.S.

government-run, non-profit organisation that carries out unofficial relations with Taiwan.Rosenberger, who took up the post last week, was previously a senior official for China and Taiwan on President Joe Biden's National Security Council.Tsai's transit comes when U.S.

relations with China are at what some analysts see as their worst level since Washington normalised ties with Beijing in 1979 and switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei.White House national security spokesperson John Kirby urged China not to use a "normal" stopover as a pretext to increase aggressive activity against Taiwan."We're mindful that things are tense right now" between the United States and China, Kirby said, but he urged Beijing to keep lines of communication open.Kirby said Washington still wanted to reschedule a trip to Beijing by Secretary of State Antony Blinken that was postponed last month when a suspected Chinese spy balloon was shot down by a U.S.