(Bloomberg) -- US House Speaker Mike Johnson held a call with Taiwan President Lai Ching-te, a move likely adding to China’s reasons to step up its military intimidation of the democracy.
Johnson and Lai spoke on Wednesday, a person familiar with the call said.
Lai posted pictures of his calls with US lawmakers, including Johnson and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, on the social platform X and said they spoke of “security and economic cooperation.”
The calls come while Lai is on a trip to Pacific nations that has included stops in Guam and Hawaii. China condemned the US for allowing the transit in Hawaii, raising the possibility that the People’s Liberation Army holds more military drills around Taiwan soon, possibly shortly after Lai returns home on Friday.
Voice of America first reported on Lai’s call with Johnson.
China wants to bring Taiwan under its control someday, by force if necessary, and opposes nations it has ties with, like the US, from having contact with officials from the hub for advanced semiconductor production.
The PLA has held major military drills around Taiwan twice since he took office. It said the war games in October were a warning against “separatist acts” after Lai had given a speech in which he said Taipei would stand up to Beijing’s challenges.
The PLA also held exercises twice around Taiwan because former President Tsai Ing-wen met with two of Johnson’s predecessors as speaker, Nancy Pelosi and Kevin McCarthy.
Lai spoke by phone with Pelosi when he was in Hawaii on Sunday about issues including the chip industry, artificial intelligence and the military threat that China poses, the semi-official Central News Agency in Taipei reported earlier.
Underscoring Johnson’s support for Taiwan, he urged a delegation of House lawmakers to visit the archipelago following Lai’s inauguration. He’s also been fairly critical of Beijing. In a speech in July, he referred to China as the “No. 1 foreign threat” for the US, and said “Congress must keep our focus on countering China with every tool at our disposal.”
Lai is now in Guam, where the US has a major airbase and last month deployed a nuclear-powered attack submarine.
He has visited Guam’s legislature and met the territory’s governor, Lou Leon Guerrero. Previous Taiwan presidents have stopped in Guam as part of trips abroad.
Lai’s first trip as president is aimed at shoring up ties with the Marshall Islands, Tuvalu and Palau — three of the island’s few remaining allies.
Ties with Guam have also been developing in recent years. The territory’s legislature has passed several resolutions in support of Taipei’s participation with international organizations, activity China works to curtail, and Taiwan reopened a representative office there in 2021.
--With assistance from Billy House and Jenny Leonard.
(Updates with confirmation of the call)
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