US House speaker meets Taiwan president despite Beijings threats

LOS ANGELES — US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy sits down with Taiwan’s president on Wednesday (April 5) for a highly symbolic meeting in California that has already prompted outrage and dire warnings from China. The meeting outside Los Angeles comes on what is technically a stopover for President Tsai Ing-wen, after her two-country trip in Latin America to visit Taiwan’s few remaining official allies. Beijing claims Taiwan as its own territory and balks at any official contact Taipei has with other countries. This week it warned Mr McCarthy, a Republican and California native who is second in line to the…