A curious sight greeted Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) as they met at the Ronald Reagan presidential library in California on Wednesday.

Alongside a larger group of pro-Taiwan supporters, a throng of Chinese Communist Party supporters gathered to protest the meeting. In an inexcusable failure of security, the Simi Valley Police Department seems to have abandoned the management of the two protest groups to a few clearly overwhelmed security officers. The officers struggled to keep the two groups separated as tensions grew. One pro-Beijing protester even used his Communist China flag as a makeshift spear.

US SHOULD RECALL ITS AMBASSADOR IF FRANCE GIVES CHINA HIGH-TECH ACCESS

Still, that flag bears note for another reason. A very large proportion of the otherwise demographically diverse group of pro-Beijing protesters were all using the same flag.

Where did they get those flags from?

It might seem like a silly or conspiratorial question, but it's a good bet that the Chinese consulates in Los Angeles and San Francisco had something to do with this protest.

While many of their accredited diplomats are actually undercover intelligence officers, Chinese diplomatic missions are also well known for organizing and equipping protests in the West. Dedication to Xi Jinping's Communist Party agenda is, of course, a prerequisite for promotion, and so Chinese diplomats also have few qualms about escalating protests into violent disorder — as with a protest at the Chinese consulate in Manchester, England, last October.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

Beijing views Taiwan's separation from mainland authorities as its defining foreign policy concern.

In turn, you can bet that the consulates had a role in mobilizing pro-Beijing protesters on Wednesday. If violence does occur, the State Department must be willing to hold Chinese diplomats accountable for any role they played in it.