Whatever excuse they use to try and cover it, US House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy's planned meeting with Taiwan regional leader Tsai Ing-wen on Wednesday will do irreparable damage to the Sino-US relationship.

It was solemnly written in the three Sino-US joint communiques that "there is only one China and Taiwan is part of China". This has been recognized and affirmed by every US president every time the two nations' leaders have met since that truth was acknowledged by the US.

By allowing the independence-pursuing Tsai to "stop over" in US territory and arranging a political leader to meet her, the US government is ruining its own national credibility and the trustworthiness of any legal document signed by a US president and bearing the US seal.

The notice that McCarthy will host a bipartisan meeting with Tsai further shows that a consensus has been formed in Washington that the Taiwan question can be exploited to put pressure on Beijing.

An "anti-China" storm has swept through the Capitol Building bearing the dust of the Cold War mentality, which the members of Congress are unwilling to brush away, despite it getting into their eyes so they can't see clearly. The meeting will only further strain Sino-US relations.

All the signs show that the toxic dust of the Cold War mentality has contaminated the whole of Congress, leaving no one untouched on either side of the political divide. Upon taking office as House speaker, McCarthy immediately formed a select committee on China, comprising 13 Republicans and 11 Democrats; when the House of Representatives passed an act prompting the Secretary of State to alter China's developing country status in international organizations, the voting was 415:0.

At a time when the divisions in US society and politics are becoming increasingly virulent, to counter China has become almost the only consensus between the Republicans and the Democrats.

On March 29, the US-based conservative think tank Heritage Foundation published a special report "Winning the New Cold War: A Plan for Countering China". The House speaker hosting a meeting with Tsai "deliberately invokes the legacy of the Cold War" as the foundation urged in the report. It is evident that red-baiting McCarthyism is rife once again.

Tsai should recognize that rather than being a honored guest she is simply viewed by her hosts as a useful piece on the US game board. When then Taiwan leader Lee Teng-hui "stopped over" in Hawaii in 1994, he was reportedly given a small room to rest in the military base there, received by a sergeant, without even being allowed to step on US soil. What the US is doing this time is anything but a routine practice as they claim. It serves only as a further provocation to Beijing.

Beijing has said that it will respond accordingly, which prompted Tsai to talk with US security officials via video link on Tuesday, exposing her worries about going too far without the support of the US and thus the weakness of her position.