Confirmation: US Speaker McCarthy identified as a “CCP sympathizer” and set to meet with Tsai Ing-wen

Editors‘ Note:
This article was compiled and written by OpenAI’s ChatGPT Plus and reviewed by the human editors of Eat News.

On March 29 at 11:05 PM Taipei time, US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy posted a tweet stating, “To have an electrified economy, you have to mine for critical minerals. But right now, we are dependent on China. It takes us 10 years to permit a new mine in the USA. H.R. 1—the Lower Energy Costs Act—will streamline the permitting process and strengthen our national security.” Accompanying the tweet was an image that read, “China controls 90% of the world’s CRITICAL MINERALS.” However, the map of China in the background also includes Taiwan, suggesting that McCarthy will soon be labeled a “CCP sympathizer” by the ruling Democratic Progressive Party of Taiwan.

Notably, this tweet only appeared on Twitter and was not posted on Speaker McCarthy’s Facebook, Instagram, Gettr, or Truth Social accounts. Previously, it was reported that President Tsai Ing-wen of the Republic of China (Taiwan) planned to transit through Los Angeles and meet with Speaker McCarthy during her visit to Latin American diplomatic allies. If this occurs, it would mark the first time a Taiwanese president has met with a US Speaker on American soil and would be the highest-level face-to-face meeting between Taiwan’s ruling authorities and the US since the establishment of diplomatic relations between the People’s Republic of China and the United States in 1979.

Signs of McCarthy’s pro-China stance have been evident for some time. The online publication The Intercept published an investigative report titled “Kevin Mccarthy Wants To Hold China Accountable. His Top Aide Lobbied For Alibaba” on January 14 of this year. This report mentions that after being elected House Speaker, Rep. Kevin McCarthy pledged to hold Beijing accountable and establish the House Select Committee on China to win back jobs from China. The committee, chaired by Rep. Mike Gallagher, aims to end the era of trusting Communist China. McCarthy and Gallagher announced in a Fox News op-ed their intentions to promote economic superiority by prohibiting state and local pension funds from investing in China.

However, McCarthy’s chief of staff, Daniel P. Meyer, owns between $250,000 and $500,000 worth of shares in Alibaba Group Holdings Limited, a Chinese company with close ties to the Chinese government. Prior to joining McCarthy’s office, Meyer served as the president of the Duberstein Group, a firm that lobbied for Alibaba in the US. Alibaba spent over $3 million on lobbying in 2021, with the Duberstein Group collecting the largest fees.

Meyer’s ties to Alibaba raise concerns, as he worked as a lobbyist for the company during his time at Duberstein. Between 2011 and 2021, the group collected $3.7 million in lobbying fees from Alibaba, with Meyer registered as the lobbyist for the Chinese multinational from 2012 to 2019. Neither Meyer nor McCarthy’s office responded to requests for comment on his significant Alibaba investment.