The meeting outside Los Angeles comes on what is technically a stopover for President Tsai Ing-wen, after her two-country trip in Latin America to visit Taiwan's few remaining official allies.
A pro-China demonstration also gathered nearby chanting "One China", as Tsai arrived Tuesday evening, following her Central American tour.
Beijing claims Taiwan as its own territory and balks at any official contact Taipei has with other countries.
This week, it warned McCarthy, a Republican and California native who is second in line to the US presidency, that he was "playing with fire" by meeting Tsai.
"China is strongly opposed to the US arranging for Tsai Ing-wen to transit through its territory, and is strongly opposed to the meeting between House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, the third-ranking US official, and Tsai Ing-wen," foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told reporters.
"It seriously violates the One-China principle and the three China-US joint communiques, and seriously undermines China's sovereignty and territorial integrity."
Taiwan, a flourishing democracy, has been self-governing for decades. It has its own military, an independent judiciary and all the trappings of a fully functioning state.
But only a handful of countries acknowledge it as a sovereign nation.
The United States formally recognizes Beijing, but is an important backer of Taiwan, and maintains strong unofficial ties.
Taipei enjoys strong bipartisan support in the US Congress, and has grown closer to Washington under Tsai's leadership.
- 'Resolve to defend ourselves' -
Last year, McCarthy's predecessor, Democrat Nancy Pelosi sparked fury in Beijing by becoming the most senior US politician to visit the island in over two decades.
That prompted Beijing to launch its largest-ever military exercises in waters around Taiwan.
McCarthy had originally planned to go himself, but opted instead to meet Tsai at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California.
His office said that the meeting would be "bipartisan," while US media reported that over a dozen other members of Congress would attend.
The decision to meet in the United States was viewed as a compromise that would underscore support for Taiwan but avoid inflaming tensions with China.
Tsai's visit to southern California comes after trips to Guatemala and Belize and after a brief stop in New York last week, where she was greeted by flag-waving Taiwanese expatriates.
"We have demonstrated a firm will and resolve to defend ourselves, that we are capable of managing risks with calm and composure and that we have the ability to maintain regional peace and stability," she said in New York.
Bonnie Glaser, Managing Director of the Indo-Pacific Program at the German Marshall Fund, said China had been quite outspoken about the visit in recent days, and may feel that it has to keep up the rhetoric.
"China has already said some fairly threatening things which suggests to me that they have to respond in some way," she told AFP, adding that "otherwise (President) Xi Jinping could end up looking weak."
But China's response will be shaped in part, Glaser said, by what McCarthy says publicly after the meeting.
China's consulate in Los Angeles said on Monday the meeting in California would "greatly hurt the national feelings of 1.4 billion Chinese people" and undermine "the political foundation of China-US relations."
Foxconn founder Guo announces Taiwan presidential run
Taipei (AFP) April 5, 2023 -
Terry Gou, the billionaire founder of tech giant Foxconn, announced on Wednesday he is seeking the presidential nomination of Taiwan's main opposition Kuomintang party to "avoid war" with China.
Taiwan will elect its next leader in January 2024 to succeed President Tsai Ing-wen, whose two terms in power have been marked by soaring tensions with Beijing.
Returning from a visit to the United States, Gou, 72, told reporters that "there is the risk that war may break out anytime" and that Tsai's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) must be voted out to "avoid war".
Tsai will step down in May 2024 after serving the maximum two terms allowed. Vice President William Lai, 63, has said he will seek the DPP nomination.
"I have to tell young people honestly that voting for the DPP which upholds Taiwan's independence, hates China and is anti-China is against your interests," Gou said.
"We can't take... (peace) for granted, it requires the people to make the right choice."
His announcement came ahead of Tsai's scheduled meeting with US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy during a stopover in Los Angeles on Wednesday following a visit to Central America.
The meeting will almost certainly enrage Beijing.
After a visit to Taipei last year by McCarthy's predecessor Nancy Pelosi, China staged huge military drills around democratic Taiwan.
China claims the self-ruled island as part of its territory to be taken one day -- by force if necessary.
On Tuesday, Beijing vowed to "firmly defend" its sovereignty ahead of Tsai's visit to the United States, and warned McCarthy that he was "playing with fire".
Gou ceded control of Foxconn, the world's largest contract electronics maker and a key supplier for Apple's iPhones, in 2019 when he last sought the KMT's presidential nomination.
That bid ended with a loss in the party's primaries.
The bulk of Gou's investments are in mainland China, where he employs more than one million workers in massive factories, raising concerns over his perceived cosiness with Beijing's leadership.
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