External pressure will not stop Taiwan from engaging with the world, President Tsai Ing-wen said on Wednesday as she left for the United States, hitting a defiant note after China threatened retaliation if she met US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

When Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou met Chinese President Xi Jinping in Singapore last November for their historic handshake, Xi said of both sides: “We are brothers connected by flesh even if our bones are broken, we are a family whose blood is thicker th