China has vowed reprisals against Taiwan after a meeting between the US House of Representatives speaker and the island’s president, saying Washington was on a “wrong and dangerous road”.

Speaker Kevin McCarthy hosted President Tsai Ing-wen in California in a show of US support for the self-ruled island, which Beijing claims as its own.

The Biden administration maintains there is nothing provocative about the visit by Ms Tsai, which is the latest of half a dozen to the US.

It comes as the US-China relationship has fallen to new lows, with American support for Taiwan becoming one of the main points of difference.

The formal trappings of the meeting, and the senior rank of some of the elected officials in the delegation from US Congress, could lead China to view it as an escalation.

No speaker is known to have met a Taiwanese president on US soil since Washington broke off formal diplomatic relations in 1979.

In response to the meeting, Beijing said it would take “resolute and forceful measures to defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity”, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. It urged the US “not to walk further down a wrong and dangerous road”.

At their meeting on Wednesday, Ms Tsai and Mr McCarthy spoke carefully to avoid escalating tensions with Beijing.

Standing side by side at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, the two acknowledged China’s threats against the island government.

“America’s support for the people of Taiwan will remain resolute, unwavering and bipartisan,” Mr McCarthy said at a news conference later. He also said US-Taiwan ties are stronger than at any other point in his life.

Taiwan leader Ms Tsai said the “unwavering support reassures the people of Taiwan that we are not isolated”.

More than a dozen Democratic and Republican legislators, including the House’s third-ranking Democrat, had joined the meeting.

Ms Tsai and Mr McCarthy spoke about the importance of Taiwan’s self-defence, of fostering robust trade and economic ties and supporting the island government’s ability to participate in the international community.

But she warned: “It is no secret that today the peace that we have maintained and the democracy which we have worked hard to build are facing unprecedented challenges.

“We once again find ourselves in a world where democracy is under threat and the urgency of keeping the beacon of freedom shining cannot be overstated.”

China’s military pressure campaign on Taiwan has intensified in recent years, and the Communist Party has sent planes or ships towards the island on a near-daily basis.

“We will take resolute measures to punish the ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist forces and their actions, and resolutely safeguard our country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” said China’s Taiwan Affairs Office yesterday, referring to Ms Tsai and her party as separatists.

Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defence said it had tracked China’s Shandong aircraft carrier passing south east of Taiwan. Yesterday morning, it tracked three Chinese navy vessels and one warplane.

US Congressional visits to Taiwan have become more frequent in the past year, and the American Institute in Taipei, the de facto embassy, announced the arrival of another delegation yesterday.

Michael McCaul, who heads the US House Foreign Affairs Committee, is leading a delegation of eight other legislators for a three-day visit.