Taiwan

Speaking alongside Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, he added that the U.S. maintains a "one China policy," recognizing Beijing as the government of China, but said ...

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President Joe Biden said Monday that the United States would intervene militarily if China attempts to take Taiwan by force, a warning that appeared to ...

Tensions between Beijing and Taipei are at the highest they've been in recent decades, with the Chinese military sending record numbers of war planes near the island. "As the President said, our policy has not changed. The US provides Taiwan defensive weapons, but has remained intentionally ambiguous on whether it would intervene militarily in the event of a Chinese attack. "We agree with the One China policy. "That's the commitment we made." Are you willing to get involved militarily to defend Taiwan if it comes to that?"

President Biden has now repeatedly indicated that the United States' duty to defend Taiwan from China might go further than long-standing U.S. policy has ...

“The president should not cede to Taiwan, much less to China, the ability automatically to draw us into a war across the Taiwan Strait.” It’s more and more difficult to believe it’s the latter, given that the matter has now come up repeatedly. The question to Biden on Monday wasn’t as explicit as “full force of the military.” But Biden has indeed made U.S. strategic ambiguity policy more ambiguous — whether deliberately or because he has not quite nailed down how he wants to talk about the issue. The most recent question, though, explicitly aimed at defending Taiwan “militarily.” The White House could perhaps argue that might mean providing Taiwan with military aid if it’s attacked. But despite Biden’s repeated assertions about a “commitment,” the United States in fact has no NATO-esque, mutual-defense agreement with Taiwan, which China still claims as its territory. “As the president said, our policy has not changed,” a White House official said. The administration’s argument seems to be that Biden is referring to that act, and not something that would require actual U.S. force. It is not an improvement.” And each time, the White House has sought to clarify that there is no official change. Are you willing to get involved militarily to defend Taiwan if it comes to that?BIDEN: Yes.Q: You are?BIDEN: That’s the commitment we made. Same with Japan, same with South Korea, same with — Taiwan. It’s not even comparable to talk about that. Q: You didn’t want to get involved in the Ukraine conflict militarily for obvious reasons.

U.S. President Joe Biden attends a joint press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, not pictured, following their bilateral summit at the ...

“The so-called Indo-Pacific Strategy is, in essence, a strategy of creating division, inciting confrontation and undermining peace,” he said. [However,] Japan is never going to fight a high intensity conflict alongside the United States in defense of Taiwan.” It’s not exactly unheard of for Biden to find himself in a verbal tangle at the podium. Of course, a fierce reaction from Beijing towards the Quad could prompt Japan’s defensive posture to change. Even a swift U.S. victory with minimal loss of life would be largely pyrrhic, given the decimation wrought to global supply chains, especially the semiconductors vital to countless industries whose production Taiwan dominates. In addition, Sung says the island felt abandoned following reports that it was being left out of the initial phase of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, a new regional trade grouping proposed by the White House. Whether the U.S. would send troops to defend the island’s 23 million inhabitants in the event of conflict has never been confirmed. Biden’s comments in Tokyo could appear to be a shift towards “strategic clarity,” though clarity doesn’t necessarily translate to security for Taiwan. In any case, Beijing is furious with Biden’s remarks. White House officials have already begun walking back any inference that Biden’s remarks reflect a change in U.S. policy, just as they did when Biden made similar comments in August and October. National Security adviser Jake Sullivan has repeatedly said strategic ambiguity was the safest option. He added that U.S. resolve to defend Taiwan was “even stronger” after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24. But despite the absence of any formal peace accord, relations improved over the past three decades as business ties flourished. Since 1979, the cornerstone of U.S.-China relations has been the One China policy—under which Washington acknowledges Beijing’s claim over Taiwan while not endorsing it.

This is the third time US president Joe Biden has said the US is committed to defending Taiwan in case of an attack by China.

But since then, the US and Europe have imposed sweeping sanctions that have crippled Russia’s economy, while the US just approved a $40 billion emergency military and humanitarian aid package for Ukraine. Strictly speaking, strategic ambiguity is not about whether the United States would intervene should either side upset the present status quo by initiating a cross-strait conflict, as is commonly assumed. Biden’s comments come as China’s rhetoric about “reunification” with Taiwan has been more aggressive in recent years, while Chinese incursions into Taiwan’s air monitoring area have also increased. China has claimed the democratically governed island as its own territory since the Communist Party emerged victorious from the Chinese civil war in 1949. Speaking today from a venue far closer to China, standing alongside Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida in Tokyo, Biden was again decidedly unambiguous. It creates a type of “dual deterrence” in which both sides are deterred from endangering the status quo by the possibility of U.S. intervention while at the same time being assured that the other side will not unilaterally seek to change the status quo.

President's blunt response appears to undercut US 'strategic ambiguity' on Taiwan as White House forced to walk back remarks.

Valerie Biden Owens, his sister and longtime campaign manger, told the Guardian in a recent interview: “He doesn’t have gaffes. The struggles of the Russian military suggest that the Chinese military would not have cakewalk. Better to embrace it as new US stance, one that is fully consistent with one-China policy but that alters how US will go about implementing it.” A source told CNN that Biden meant providing weapons, not deploying boots on the ground. One possible meaning is that America has abandoned its long-held position of “strategic ambiguity” on Taiwan. But Biden may have delivered not so much strategic clarity as strategic confusion. He has also been pushing the envelope on Taiwan for some time.

Comment during Tokyo visit sparks uncertainty over whether U.S. is moving away from policy of strategic ambiguity.

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Veteran U.S. diplomat Henry Kissinger says Washington and Beijing must seek to avoid putting Taiwan at the center of their tense diplomatic relationship.

This included orchestrating U.S. relations with China. "It is important for the overall peace of the world for the United States and China to mitigate their adversarial relationship," he added. "For the core of the negotiations, it is important that the United States and China discuss principles that affect the adversarial relationship that permits at least some scope for cooperative efforts," Kissinger said. Speaking at the World Economic Forum in a rare springtime version of Davos, Kissinger said: "The United States should not by subterfuge or by a gradual process develop something of a 'two-China' solution, but that China will continue to exercise the patience that has been exercised up until now." "A direct confrontation should be avoided and Taiwan cannot be the core of the negotiations because it is between China and the United States." - Speaking at the World Economic Forum in a rare springtime version of Davos, Kissinger said: "The United States should not by subterfuge or by a gradual process develop something of a 'two-China' solution, but that China will continue to exercise the patience that has been exercised up until now."

President Joe Biden attends an Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity launch event in Tokyo on May 23. Photo: JONATHAN ERNST/REUTERS. Your ...

You may cancel your subscription at anytime by calling Customer Service. But the idea that it could be taken by force, just taken by force, is just not—it’s just not appropriate. The arguably much bigger mistake is his decision not to include Taiwan in the new Indo-Pacific Economic Framework that the Administration launched on Monday.

President Joe Biden had sought to make his first Asia tour about forging a new economic framework for the region, deepening relations with the heads of ...

Meanwhile the Biden administration has not said enough about the need for an effective level of diplomacy that will revitalize the “One China” policy in ways that could avoid escalations. “Our view, as we’ve expressed many times, is that we are concerned about peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and the ratcheting up of tensions. In October 2021, Biden stated a similar “ commitment” to Taiwan. In August 2021, Biden compared the US approach to Taiwan to its pledge to defend NATO countries. Biden administration officials exhibit incredible cool and control, often in complete paragraphs that might as well have been torn from the page of a presidential briefing book. The diplomatic gymnastics of the “One China” policy may seem absurd. “The ‘One China’ policy is a terrible interim solution, and it’s the best we got,” he told me. Like all of the Biden statements, there was a White House walk-back. As part of the “One China” policy, the US does not recognize the democratic island nation of Taiwan, but maintains “a robust unofficial relationship” with it, according to the State Department. (The US supports Taiwan with weapons and has deep economic ties with the country.) In a phrase, Biden broke down that convention. Now, Biden has said, in as many words, that the trip is really all about countering China. It was actually the third time that Biden has said something along these lines. US policy toward Taiwan has been one of “strategic ambiguity” for four decades — supporting Taiwan’s independence without quite saying so. At the same time, it wasn’t a particularly revelatory moment.

President Joe Biden said Monday that the United States has a “commitment” to help Taiwan militarily if China invades.

The U.S. sells military equipment to Taiwan, and the island is an important trading partner, especially as a major producer of semiconductors for computer chips. Taiwan welcomed the news. There is no mutual defense treaty between the U.S. and Taiwan, but America sells the Taiwanese military hardware. There's an ongoing debate over what kind of weapons to sell Taiwan, a source of contention between U.S. policymakers, competing political and military interests in Taipei, and the U.S. defense industry. The U.S. is a major supplier of weapons to Taiwan, although sales have dropped off in the past year. Biden said Monday he didn’t think China would invade Taiwan, although he also said that “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 community.” The island’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement expressing “its sincere welcome and gratitude to President Biden and the U.S. government for reaffirming their rock-solid commitment to Taiwan.” “The challenge posed by China to the security of the Taiwan Strait has drawn great concern in the international community,” spokesperson Joanne Ou said. Is it that simple? “We have a deep political, economic and military relationship with a place that we don’t officially recognize," said Julian Ku, a professor of international law at Hofstra University in New York. "I don’t think that there’s any place like it in the U.S. foreign policy world.” The confusion is a reminder of Washington's stance of “strategic ambiguity” when it comes to Taiwan — essentially, leaving China guessing about what exactly the U.S. would do if there was an invasion. President Joe Biden said Monday that the United States has a “commitment” to help Taiwan militarily if China invades

The president's “strategic ambiguity” backtrack may hasten Taiwan Strait conflict, observers say. President Joe Biden speaks during a news conference in ...

Biden’s messaging on Taiwan constitutes a direct challenge to Xi’s repeated warnings that the U.S. avoid upsetting the bilateral status quo on Taiwan. “Such moves are extremely dangerous, just like playing with fire. “A question that must be on everyone’s mind in Beijing is whether the U.S. has already changed its [Taiwan] policy. “There are two dangers — Mr. Biden’s verbal blunders represent real policy, which I think the Chinese believe they do … and then we face the 2024 presidential election with a strong possibility of an even harder line by Republican candidates. Despite the risks, there is strong bipartisan support for an explicit U.S. commitment to defend Taiwan regardless of whether the U.S. could actually deliver on that promise. The Chinese government has reason to be skeptical about White House assurances that Biden’s repeated backtracking on strategic ambiguity don’t reflect U.S. policy. Biden’s Taiwan comments came during the second half of his four-day Asia trip designed to counter China’s growing economic, diplomatic and military influence in the region. China’s sensitivities about the U.S. relationship with Taiwan were primed last week when U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai met with John Deng, Taiwan’s chief trade negotiator, to discuss bilateral trade opportunities. This force needs to be available shortly after the United States decides to react if the response is to be in any way effective,” the report said. He reiterated our One China Policy and our commitment to peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” a White House official said Monday in a statement. Taiwan says it doesn’t need the U.S. to fight its battles. “He also reiterated our commitment under the Taiwan Relations Act to provide Taiwan with the military means to defend itself.” He might feel pushed into a corner by a U.S. direct challenge to Beijing’s claim to sovereignty over Taiwan.”

China-Taiwan tensions: Biden says U.S. to defend Taiwan against Chinese invasion on visit to Japan, but can it? Are there lessons in Putin's war on Ukraine?

But the most important steps that Taipei and Washington can take are those that persuade China never to exercise its military option — something Biden couldn’t convince Putin of. That said, Taiwan is a fraction of the landmass of Ukraine and thus easy for China to blanket with surveillance. On balance, the intervention of U.S. air and sea power could only give Taiwan a fighting chance. By contrast, Taipei should deprioritize the construction of expensive surface warships they are now building that can potentially be lost quite rapidly, as happened to Ukraine’s few ships. Geographically, because Taiwan is an island, it’s only threatened from invasion by the smaller number of troops China can land there by sea and air. Taiwan’s people and military, therefore, need to be robust enough to withstand initial assaults and hold out for weeks before the U.S. and allies could respond with full force. Right now, Beijing is watching the U.S. and its Western allies impose crushing economic sanctions on Russia, causing massive inflation and a projected 15 percent contraction of its economy. On ground and in the air, the unexpected resilience of Ukraine’s surface-to-air defenses and planes despite Russia’s much larger air force also suggests Taiwan’s might do better than expected if it smartly prioritizes long-term survival. So if the U.S. follows through on promising to intervene, can Taiwan’s defenders stave off an attack long enough for U.S. reinforcements to arrive? The U.S., too, should be assessing which of its methods in Ukraine could help Taiwan — and which wouldn’t — if Biden looks to make good on his words Monday. Taiwan is now a prosperous democracy, and a large majority of Taiwanese reject reunification with China. Biden’s remarks went beyond Washington’s historically more ambiguous stance on whether it would defend Taiwan in the case of an invasion.

If a US President keeps vowing to do something, and his aides keep insisting he won't, no one is sure what to believe -- a potential dangerous state of ...

The idea that Taiwan is part of the motherland is fundamental to modern Chinese doctrine. The reasoning is that since China is now far more powerful and threatening to Taiwan, the United States needs to make its position clearer. A White House statement said Biden merely restated US undertakings under the Taiwan Relations Act "to provide Taiwan with the military means to defend itself." •To be clear, the US does not have any commitment to defend Taiwan militarily in the event of a Chinese attack. •So, if he repeatedly says the US will use military force to defend the island, shouldn't he be taken seriously? At the same time, it's aimed at depriving Taiwan of US assurances that could prompt it to push for official independence.

As he concludes his debut tour of Asia, President Joe Biden is using Russia's invasion of Ukraine to send an unmistakable message to China: a similar breach ...

And China has been working hard over the past years to cultivate countries in the region as it flexes its regional power. The US provides Taiwan defensive weapons but has remained intentionally ambiguous on whether it would intervene militarily in the event of a Chinese attack. And though much of China's looming presence on the trip was unspoken, on Monday Biden said The visit comes later in Biden's presidency than he might have liked, according to officials, who say Covid restrictions and the pull of other crises made it difficult to schedule a trip. It's the third time in recent months -- including during a CNN town hall in October -- that Biden has said the US would protect Taiwan from a Chinese attack, only to have the White House walk back those remarks. Still, Biden and the other leaders are expected to unveil new initiatives on maritime information sharing, Covid vaccines and climate as part of their meeting. Yet it's far from clear those steps have done much to contain China's ambitions. "The President is very aware that countries have their own histories. "The goal here is not to create a lot of formal structures. The White House quickly downplayed Biden's comments, saying they don't reflect a change in US policy. Biden warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin is "trying to extinguish a culture," pointing to Russia's targeting of Ukrainian schools, churches, and museums. "This is more than just a European issue," he said.

Over the course of just nine months, President Biden has said at least three times that the United States would militarily defend Taiwan in the event of an ...

And Taiwanese officials had been calling on Biden to do away with ambiguity: In an interview with the Today’s WorldView newsletter in 2020, Taiwan’s de facto ambassador to the United States called for “some degree of clarity” on the issue. On Monday, a White House official told reporters that people were misinterpreting Biden’s comments and that he was simply reiterating the 1979 pledge made to support Taiwan with the military means for self-defense. The 1979 Taiwan Relations Act, which set out provisions for unofficial but substantive relations with Taiwan, does not call for the United States to protect Taiwan in the case of a war. It’s still a policy built on ambiguity, just with a little more strategy to back it up. Some China-watchers say that, at this point, it’s best to just assume that Biden is signaling a new policy. Here, the United States has acknowledged Beijing’s position that there is only one China but it has also said that Taiwan’s fate should not be decided by force. Lev Nachman, a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University’s Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, wrote on Twitter that while Biden’s language was clumsy, it wasn’t a reversal of any policy. During his visit to Tokyo on Monday, for example, Biden was asked whether the United States would defend Taiwan militarily if China invaded. But his comments have now been repeated enough that many do not buy that it’s just a mistake. “We made a sacred commitment to Article 5 that if in fact anyone were to invade or take action against our NATO allies, we would respond. Though administration officials have thrice walked back these statements, amid heightened tensions with Beijing, it’s reasonable to wonder if the ambiguity is starting to wear a little thin. And Biden’s remarks about U.S. agreements with Taiwan often appear to be factually incorrect.

President Joe Biden is seeking to show US resolve against China, yet an ill-timed gaffe on Taiwan risks undermining his bid to curb Beijing's growing ...

The big blunder is not including the island democracy in the new Indo-Pacific economic framework.

You may cancel your subscription at anytime by calling Customer Service. But the idea that it could be taken by force, just taken by force, is just not—it’s just not appropriate. The arguably much bigger mistake is his decision not to include Taiwan in the new Indo-Pacific Economic Framework that the Administration launched on Monday.

The big blunder is not including the island democracy in the new Indo-Pacific economic framework.

You may cancel your subscription at anytime by calling Customer Service. But the idea that it could be taken by force, just taken by force, is just not—it’s just not appropriate. The arguably much bigger mistake is his decision not to include Taiwan in the new Indo-Pacific Economic Framework that the Administration launched on Monday.

President Joe Biden said Tuesday there has been no change to U.S. policy on Taiwan, a day after saying he would be willing to use the military to defend it ...

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The big blunder is not including the island democracy in the new Indo-Pacific economic framework.

You may cancel your subscription at anytime by calling Customer Service. But the idea that it could be taken by force, just taken by force, is just not—it’s just not appropriate. The arguably much bigger mistake is his decision not to include Taiwan in the new Indo-Pacific Economic Framework that the Administration launched on Monday.

Biden's Asia trip was the third time he'd appeared to put U.S. military protection explicitly behind Taiwan then insist there was no policy change.

"We have a commitment to do that." Biden has prioritized strengthening alliances that can stand up to China, including by reviving the Asia-Pacific security partnership between the United States, Australia, Japan and India, known as the "Quad." He drew Beijing's ire after securing a deal last year with the U.K. to supply Australia with nuclear-powered submarines. It gives the United States the ability to come to Taiwan’s defense but doesn't require it. “No one should stand in opposition to the 1.4 billion Chinese people.” Taiwan, an island separated from China by the Taiwan Strait, sees itself as an independent, sovereign nation. China has dramatically increased its military capabilities in recent years. “The confusion and misstatements are more likely to undermine deterrence than strengthen it.” While the U.S. still supports the "One China" policy recognizing there is only one Chinese government, Biden said, "that does not mean that China has the jurisdiction to go in and use force to take over Taiwan." The hope was that the resulting "strategic ambiguity" would serve as a deterrent to China while not encouraging Taiwan to provoke a showdown. Biden's linkage of Russia and China came in response to a reporter asking Monday if the president is "willing to get involved militarily to defend Taiwan, if it comes to that?" In 1979, when the United States established formal diplomatic relations with China, it recognized the communist leadership in Beijing as the sole legal government of China, acknowledging the Chinese position that there is one China and Taiwan is a breakaway province that is part of China. As Biden posed for a photo with the leaders of Japan, India and Australia, a reporter asked if the policy of “strategic ambiguity” toward Taiwan was dead.

US President Joe Biden's warning the US would defend Taiwan against Chinese aggression has made headlines around the world -- and put growing tensions ...

But on the streets of Taipei, the mood appears to be mostly relaxed and confident. But tensions began to ease in the late 1980s, allowing limited private visits, indirect trade and investment across the strait. Military conflicts continued to flare up, with the PRC shelling several outlying islands controlled by the ROC on two separate occasions. And under Xi, China has become increasingly assertive in foreign policy and grown more authoritarian at home. At the same time, it's aimed at depriving Taiwan of US assurances that could prompt it to declare official independence. "My expectation is it will not happen," he told reporters. The goal is to preserve the status quo and to avoid a war in Asia -- and it has worked, allowing Washington to walk the tightrope of relations with both sides. It was then ceded to Japan in 1895 after Imperial China lost the First Sino-Japanese War. But under Biden, that "strategic ambiguity" has become somewhat less ambiguous. But today, relations are at their lowest point in decades -- raising fears of military escalation, even as experts caution that an imminent all-out war remains unlikely. Tensions are running especially high as the Chinese military ramps up its pressure on the island, in response to what Beijing sees as "provocations" by the administrations in Taiwan and the US. But following a diplomatic conflict between Beijing and Moscow in the 1960s -- known as the Sino-Soviet split -- relations between the PRC and the US began to thaw to counterbalance the Soviet Union.

Offhand remarks that vary from the official talking points have become a feature of the Biden presidency, even as they leave his staff scrambling to spin ...

She noted that Mr. Biden had ruled out direct American military involvement in the Ukraine war and asked if by contrast he was “willing to get involved militarily to defend Taiwan if it comes to that.” But the practice has not served as a deterrent either and, for good or bad, does not seem likely to any time soon. Mr. Biden has ignored the strategic ambiguity of his predecessors with regard to China and Taiwan before. Mr. Trump, of course, was far more prone than Mr. Biden to issue provocative, off-the-cuff and unvetted statements at odds with traditional American policy. That does not appear in the offing. “We stand firmly with Japan and with other nations that — not to let that happen,” he said, keeping purposefully vague. He needs to fire everyone who does this.” Instead, the ad hoc remarks that have stirred controversy seem to be more in the category of the columnist Michael Kinsley’s legendary definition of a gaffe. His remarks on Taiwan on Monday were just the latest instance of a president saying out loud what is on his mind even if it leaves his staff scrambling to spin it away afterward. Taiwan, however, has never been granted the same U.S. security guarantees as Japan, South Korea or America’s NATO partners, so the comment was seen as significant. None of this should come as much of a surprise to anyone who followed Mr. Biden’s nearly half-century career as a senator and vice president. A president’s words are scrutinized to a forensic degree by politicians, diplomats and intelligence agencies around the globe searching for meaning and endeavoring to predict future actions.