White House: No reason for China to react to Taiwan president’s U.S. visit

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The White House said on Tuesday there is no reason for China to react to Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen’s visit to the United States.

Ing-wen will make sensitive stopovers in the United States on her way to and from Central America, which China’s foreign ministry condemned on Tuesday.

“There’s no reason for China to overreact. Heck there’s no reason for them to react,” said White House national security spokesperson John Kirby. “This is something … that is commonplace and it has happened before, likely happen again. It’s personal, it’s unofficial.”

Kirby called the Tsai visit “business as usual here.”

(Reporting by Steve Holland and Nandita Bose in Washington; Editing by Leslie Adler)