TAIPEI/BEIJING—Taiwan is keeping watch on a Chinese aircraft carrier but does not expect a large escalation in tensions, the government said on Thursday, after China denounced a meeting between Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen and U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
McCarthy—the third highest ranking official in the U.S. leadership hierarchy—and other Republican and Democratic lawmakers met Tsai on Wednesday at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California.
The meeting took place at a low ebb in U.S.-China relations and despite threats of retaliation from Beijing, which claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own and has never renounced the use of force to bring it under Chinese control….