China’s Consulate in L.A. Pays Protesters to Disrupt Kevin McCarthy’s Meeting with Taiwanese President

The Chinese consulate-general in Los Angeles is paying people affiliated with pro-Beijing groups, Chinese expats, and gangsters about $400 to disrupt House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s meeting with Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen tomorrow, the Liberty Times, a Taiwanese newspaper, reported today.

Tsai is currently on a swing through the U.S. and South America. In recent days, she has visited New York, Guatemala, and Belize. Los Angeles is her final stop.

The Chinese embassy in the U.S. has made a full-court press to disrupt the trip, also reportedly hiring protesters to follow Tsai around New York City last week. And today multiple lawmakers received emails from China’s embassy in Washington threatening consequences if the meeting with a bipartisan delegation led by McCarthy goes forward. “I have to point out that China will not sit idly by in the face of a blatant provocation and will most likely take necessary and resolute actions in response to the unwanted situation,” a Chinese diplomat wrote, also claiming that Beijing’s paid protesters in New York “reflect the will of the people” against U.S. engagement with Taiwan.

Citing intelligence sources, the Liberty Times report reveals the latest such plot, which is intended to involve more than 1,000 paid protesters who will appear at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, where the meeting is set to take place.

Taiwanese intelligence has paid particular attention to the situation surrounding the Los Angeles iteration of the Chinese government-run protest campaign because the groups mobilized there include a CCP front group dedicated to the “peaceful reunification” of Taiwan, in which the man behind a 2022 church shooting in Laguana Woods, Calif., was a member.

David Chou, the man who opened fire on a Taiwanese Presbyterian Church, killing one person and injuring others, was a member of the local Las Vegas affiliate of the National Association for China’s Peaceful Unification – a group designated by the State Department as a foreign mission of China due to the fact that it falls under the CCP’s United Front Work Department.

While there’s no indication that Chou was acting under direction from that group or a Chinese government entity in carrying out the shooting, he was motivated by hatred of Taiwan, the authorities said.

In the aftermath of the shooting, Chien Ta, one former member of an NACPU group, told Radio Free Asia that more violence was possible. “If we don’t deal with this kind of nationalistic hatred, we will definitely see more intense conflicts on the issue of unification or independence in the future.”