Following President-elect Trump's lead in redefining the U.S.-Taiwan relationship, Sen. Ted Cruz on Saturday met with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen in Houston, rejecting a Chinese demand that lawmakers refuse to meet with her.

Cruz, who was joined in the meeting by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and a group of Texas legislators, sent a stern message to China in response to a letter by Chinese officials to the Houston congressional delegation asking them not to meet with the Taiwanese leader.

"The People's Republic of China needs to understand that, in America, we make decisions about meeting with visitors for ourselves," the Texas senator and former presidential candidate said in a statement following the meeting.

"This is not about the PRC. This is about the U.S. relationship with Taiwan, an ally we are legally bound to defend," Cruz said. "The Chinese do not give us veto power over those with whom they meet."

Cruz met Tsai in Houston as she travels through the U.S. this weekend before heading to Central America. The sit-down follows a phone call late last year between Trump and Tsai after Trump won the presidential election.

That call is widely believed to be the first between a U.S. president or president-elect and a leader of Taiwan since 1979, when diplomatic relations between the two countries were cut off. Ever since Gen. Chiang Kai-shek fled mainland China to Taiwan in 1949, China has regarded Taiwan, a nearly 14,000 square-mile island off its coast, as a renegade province that should be returned to China.

The U.S. adopted a "One China" policy to help facilitate diplomacy with Beijing, and now Chinese officials warn that the U.S. is on a path to abandoning it.

Cruz said the Chinese letter to the Houston congressional delegation asked lawmakers not to meet with Tsai and to uphold the "One China" policy. But the senator dismissed the message, saying, "We will continue to meet with anyone, including the Taiwanese, as we see fit."

"The US-Taiwan relationship is not on the negotiating table," Cruz said. "It is bound in statute and founded on common interests. I look forward to working with President Tsai to strengthen our partnership."

During the meeting, Cruz said he and Tsai "discussed our mutual opportunity to upgrade the stature of our bilateral relations in a wide-ranging discussion that addressed arms sales, diplomatic exchanges, and economic relations."

"Furthering economic cooperation between our two nations must be a priority; increased access to Taiwanese markets will benefit Texas farmers, ranchers and small business owners alike," he added.