China vows to 'firmly defend national sovereignty' ahead of Tsai-McCarthy meet

China on Tuesday promised that it will "firmly defend" its national sovereignty, ahead of the meeting between US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen in California this week.

"China will closely monitor the situation and firmly defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity," said foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning in a regular briefing.

"China is strongly opposed to the US arranging for Tsai Ing-wen to transit through its territory, and is strongly opposed to the meeting between House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, the third-ranking US official, and Tsai Ing-wen," said Mao.

"It seriously violates the One-China principle and the three China-US joint communiques, and seriously undermines China's sovereignty and territorial integrity," she added.

China had earlier warned that the meeting between Tsai Ing-wen and McCarthy will "further damage" relations between Washington and Beijing.

The meeting to be held on Wednesday in California will "greatly hurt the national feelings of 1.4 billion Chinese people" and undermine "the political foundation of China-US relations," said a consulate spokesperson in a statement, adding that it would "further damage China-US relations."

"Speaker McCarthy is ignoring the broad support of the international community for the One-China principle, ignoring the lessons that should have been drawn from previous mistakes," said the consulate.

"There is no doubt that he will make the same mistake again, further damage China-US relations, but it will only strengthen the strong will and determination of the Chinese people" to achieve "reunification" with Taiwan, they added.

McCarthy, who is a Republican, had earlier confirmed that he will be holding talks with Tsai in California, defying China's warnings that he was "playing with fire”.

Tsai has planned to stop over in the US while returning from Central America, where she has met Guatemala's leaders and is travelling to Belize before meeting McCarthy.

McCarthy's office on Monday said that the "bipartisan" meeting will be held at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, outside Los Angeles.

WATCH | China-Taiwan tensions continue; Beijing continues its military activities close to Taiwan

Originally, the Republican had planned to follow the footsteps of his predecessor as a speaker, Democrat Nancy Pelosi, who had made a controversial visit to Taiwan in August.

In the wake of the visit, China had conducted its largest-ever military exercises around Taiwan, a self-governing democracy which Beijing claims as part of its territory.

Last week, China's embassy to the United States charge d'affaires Xu Xueyuan said that the US risked "serious confrontation" no matter if their government visit Taiwan or vice versa.

"The US keeps saying that transit is not a visit and that there are precedents, but we should not use past mistakes as excuses for repeating them today," she stated.

She appealed to Washington "not to repeat playing with fire on the Taiwan question," alluding to Pelosi's visit to Taiwan last year, among other things.

(With inputs from agencies)

WATCH WION LIVE HERE