China threatens retaliation if Taiwan president meets US speaker McCarthy

Taiwan president Tsai Ing-wen, centre, left on Wednesday to begin her 10-day tour of the Americas (Johnson Lai/AP)

China has threatened “resolute countermeasures” over a planned meeting between Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen and the US House speaker Kevin McCarthy during an upcoming visit to America by the head of the self-governing island democracy.

Diplomatic pressure against Taiwan has ramped up recently, with Beijing poaching Taipei’s dwindling number of diplomatic allies while also sending military fighter jets flying towards the island on a near daily basis.