Watch the Taiwanese president meet the US House Speaker in California

Watch from California as the Taiwanese president is set to meet the US House Speaker in the first such meeting in the US.

The meeting between Tsai Ing-wen and Kevin McCarthy is seen as a show of democratic solidarity in defiance of threats from China.

China, which claims self-ruled Taiwan as its own, has made threats of retaliation over the meeting.

Tsai is also scheduled to meet with a bipartisan group of US lawmakers at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley.

It marks the first time a Taiwanese president will meet with a House Speaker on US soil.

Her planned stopover followers her official visits to Taiwan’s diplomatic allies Guatemala and Belize.

Beijing launched extensive military drills around the island after McCarthy's predecessor, Nancy Pelosi, paid a visit to Taiwan last year.

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