On April 5th at 10 am protesters from the Chinese community, Pivot to Peace, CODEPINK, the ANSWER Coalition and other communities gathered at the Ronald Reagan Library in Simi Valley, CA as U.S. Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy and other politicians met with Taiwan’s president, Tsai Ing-Wen. In the final stop of her Americas tour, Tsai’s meeting with McCarthy signals yet another provocation on U.S.-China relations. This comes just months after McCarthy’s predecessor, Nancy Pelosi deliberately violated the “One China Policy” agreed upon in the joint U.S.-China Shanghai Communique by visiting Taiwan.
Retired Judge Julie Tang, a co-founder of Pivot to Peace, said, “We condemn the reckless and irresponsible acts of Speaker McCarthy. Taiwan’s Tsai Ing-wen is taking 23 million people in Taiwan down the road to destruction. And Speaker McCarthy could care less as long as he thinks China could be contained. They are provoking war in Asia. If war breaks out, we have no false hopes that our leaders will be looking out for us, or defending us against anti-Asian hate. What kind of democracy are we living in?”
“We are holding Speaker McCarthy accountable for his warmongering because the people are the tuning fork for peace.” says Wei Yu, organizer for CODEPINK’s “China is Not Our Enemy” campaign.
Pivot to Peace organizer, Chakib Mouzaoui spoke about the need for peace between the U.S. and China, and that this meeting threatens any path towards much needed cooperation between the two nations, “The foundation of peaceful relations between the U.S. and China is respect for the One China principle and allowing Taiwan and the mainland to resolve their differences without meddling by our politicians. The American people do not benefit at all from this meeting, which is only intended to threaten that diplomatic foundation and stoke hostilities when there should be none. When these politicians show no such concern, we will take action and tell them NO.”
Protestors are also concerned that the anti-China war drive will only fuel the flames of anti-Asian hate, which has been on the uptick in recent years: “The US is ready to wage war at any time. The precursor is the demonization of nations and their people. We are strongly opposed to the weaponization of racism as a means to drive consent for war. People do not support war. The U.S. has done enough damages to the rest of the word leaving long lasting damages to people and the planet,” said ANSWER Coalition organizer Noor Abdel-Haq, “And it has got to stop.”