beijing china threatened resolute countermeasures over a planned meeting between taiwans president and the united states house speaker during an upcoming trip through los angeles diplomatic pressure against taiwan has ramped up recently with beijing poaching taipeis dwindling number of diplomatic allies while also sending military fighter jets flying toward the island on a near daily basis earlier this month honduras established diplomatic relations with china leaving taiwan with only 13 countries that recognize it as a sovereign state president tsai ingwen framed the trip as a chance to show taiwans commitment to democratic values on the world stage as she left taiwan wednesday afternoon to begin her 10day tour of the americas i want to tell the whole world democratic taiwan will resolutely safeguard the values of freedom and democracy and will continue to be a force for good in the world continuing a cycle of goodness strengthening the resilience of democracy in the world she told reporters before she boarded the plane external pressure will not obstruct our resolution to engage with the world tsai is scheduled to transit through new york on march 30 before heading to guatemala and belize on april 5 shes expected to stop in los angeles on her way back to taiwan at which time the meeting with us house speaker kevin mccarthy is tentatively scheduled the us stops are the most closely watched of her trip spokesperson for the cabinets taiwan affairs office zhu fenglian at a news conference wednesday denounced tsais stopover on her way to diplomatic allies in central america and demanded that no us officials meet with her we firmly oppose this and will take resolute countermeasures zhu said the us should refrain from arranging tsai ingwens transit visits and even contact with american officials and take concrete actions to fulfill its solemn commitment not to support taiwan independence she said speaking later wednesday chinese foreign ministry spokesperson mao ning said china would closely follow the development of the situation and resolutely defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity the united states should stop claiming to set up guardrails for chinaus relations while conducting dangerous activities that undermine the political foundation of bilateral ties mao told reporters at a daily briefing transit visits through the united states by taiwanese presidents have been routine over the years senior us officials in washington and beijing have underscored to their chinese counterparts in such unofficial visits in recent years tsai has met with members of congress and taiwaneseamerican civic groups and has been welcomed by the chairperson of the american institute in taiwan the us governmentrun nonprofit that carries out unofficial relations with taiwan tsai transited through the united states six times between 2016 and 2019 before slowing international travel with the coronavirus pandemic in reaction to those visits china lashed out rhetorically against the us and taiwan however the planned meeting with mccarthy has triggered fears of a heavyhanded chinese reaction amid heightened frictions between beijing and washington over us support for