In one of the most forceful and overt statements of the American government’s support for Taiwan in decades, President Biden said on Monday that the U.S. would intervene militarily if China were to invade Taiwan.
Mr. Biden said the burden to protect the self-ruled island was “even stronger” after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The President was speaking at a joint news conference in Tokyo with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, when Biden was asked by a CBS News correspondent if the US is “willing to get involved militarily to defend Taiwan if it comes to that?”
He replied, simply, “Yes.”
“That’s the commitment we made,” Biden said. “We agree with the ‘One China’ policy. We signed onto it and all the attendant agreements made from there. But the idea that it [Taiwan] could be taken by force, just taken by force, it’s just not — it’s just not appropriate. It’ll dislocate the entire region and be another action similar to what happened in Ukraine. And so it’s a burden that is even stronger.”
The president then said U.S. “policy towards Taiwan has not changed at all,” stressing his government’s commitment to “the peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, and ensuring that there’s no unilateral change to the status quo.”
Biden said it was his “expectation” that China would not try to seize control of Taiwan by force. But he also added that “a lot of it depends upon just how strong the world makes clear that that kind of action is going to result in long term disapprobation by the rest of the [international] community.”
Beijing was quick to respond, with Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin warning, “No one should underestimate the firm resolve, staunch will and strong ability of the Chinese people in defending national sovereignty and territorial integrity,” according to French news agency AFP.
Soon after the President made the remarks, the White House released a statement insisting, as Biden did after his comments in Tokyo on Monday, that there had been no change in official U.S. policy on Taiwan.
Under the “One China” policy the U.S. recognizes Beijing as the government of all of China and doesn’t engage in official diplomatic relations with Taiwan. However, Washington maintains unofficial contacts with Taiwan, including a de facto embassy in Taipei, its capital. The U.S. also supplies military equipment for the island’s defense.
