AFP, Washington

Republican US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy confirmed he would meet Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen in California on Wednesday, defying dire warnings from China that he would be “playing with fire.”

Tsai is stopping over in the United States en route to Central America, where she has met the leaders of Guatemala and is visiting Belize before meeting with McCarthy.

His office said yesterday the “bipartisan” meeting will take place at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, just outside Los Angeles.

China has warned the United States over Tsai’s trip and in August carried out major military exercises around the island of Taiwan, a self-governing democracy it claims as part of its territory.

McCarthy, the top Republican in Congress who as House speaker is second in line to the presidency after the vice president, had earlier vowed to follow Democrat Nancy Pelosi, whom he succeeded as speaker, by traveling to Taiwan.

The meeting in his home state of California had been viewed as a middle ground that would avoid inflaming tensions with Beijing.