Beijing is likely to stick to rhetoric more than reprisals in retaliation for the meeting of the president of the Republic of China on Taiwan, Tsai Ing-wen, Wednesday afternoon with Speaker McCarthy and other members of Congress in the seclusion of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library near Los Angeles.

Signaling the Communist regime’s preference for heavy-handed verbiage rather than an overt display of military force during Ms. Tsai’s stopover, statements from Beijing and the Chinese consulate at Los Angeles were bereft of more than vague threats. 

At Beijing, spokeswoman Mao Ning urged Washington “not to allow” Ms. Tsai to see people while in transit from the Central American nations of Guatemala and Belize. “The Chinese side,” she promised, will “resolutely defend the country’s sovereignty and integrity.” There should, the Los Angeles consulate said, be “no contact” between Ms. Tsai and anyone, official or not, during her two or three days in the country.

Taiwan’s foreign ministry spun the rhetoric in its own way. Such comments, the ministry said, were too “absurd and wild” to “warrant a rebuttal.” Taiwan, it said, “has never been part of nor ruled by China” and would never submit “to being threatened or interfered with.”

Amid the boilerplate, the impression was that Beijing would not resort to drastic responses similar to those that accompanied the visit of Mr. McCarthy’s predecessor as House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, when she stopped off at Taipei with three other members of Congress last August.

It does not seem likely that Chinese ships and planes would  blockade the island, as they did during and after Mrs. Pelosi’s visit. Taiwan’s defense ministry reported that 20 Chinese aircraft including a drone had crossed the line in the Taiwan Strait between the mainland and Taiwan, but that type of display has become routine.

Nor were the Chinese expected to emit rhetoric so fiery as to give the impression that President Xi might be ready to order an invasion of  the island.

Nonetheless, Beijing is serious about letting Washington know it’s not happy about Ms. Tsai’s visit, during which she will impress on Mr. McCarthy and the others the need for congressional support of President Biden’s oft-stated “commitment” to Taiwan’s defenses.

With Republicans in control of Congress, Ms. Tsai needs them as much as she did the Democrats, who held a slim majority in the House under Mrs. Pelosi before last year’s elections. Mr. McCarthy and what’s said to be a bipartisan group may be expected to reiterate the same reassurances that Ms. Tsai has heard before from the White House and the Department of State. 

That Mr. McCarthy is meeting her at the Reagan Library, at Simi Valley about 40 miles northwest of Los Angeles, symbolizes Taiwan’s relationship with the late Republican president, a staunch anti-communist foe of Beijing’s claim to the island democracy. That done, she’ll give a talk at Los Angeles and meet members of California’s influential Taiwanese community.

Tensions, though, surround the visit. Beijing is highly sensitive to the fact that Ms. Tsai’s transit time between planes to Los Angeles from Belize and then to Taipei from Los Angeles will be no ordinary stopover. No way is Beijing letting up on its basic policy calling for eventual recovery of what it considers to be a breakaway province.