LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy met Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen in California on Wednesday, becoming the most senior U.S. figure to meet a Taiwanese leader on U.S. soil since 1979 despite threats of retaliation from China, which claims self-ruled Taiwan as its own.
McCarthy, a Republican who through his House position is number three in the U.S. leadership hierarchy, welcomed Tsai on Wednesday morning at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, near Los Angeles.
(Reporting by Michael Martina and David Brunnstrom; editing by Kanishka Singh)