China said Monday that it lodged “stern representations” to the US in response to President Biden saying that the US would defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion.
“We are willing to do our best to strive for peaceful reunification. At the same time, we will not tolerate any activities aimed at secession,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said.
Biden made the comments on Taiwan in an interview with 60 Minutes that aired on Sunday. When asked if the US would intervene to defend Taiwan, Biden replied, “Yes, if in fact there was an unprecedented attack.” When asked if that meant US men and women would defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion, he answered, “Yes.”
The White House insisted that there hasn’t been a change to US policy on Taiwan, but the statement marked the fourth time that Biden has pledged to defend the island, and Sunday’s comments on the issue were more explicit than previous ones.
Biden’s pledge to defend Taiwan goes against the long-standing US policy of strategic ambiguity for the island. Under the policy, the US does not officially say one way or the other if it would intervene to defend Taiwan. This is meant to deter either side from changing the status quo across the Taiwan Strait. Mao warned the US not to send the “wrong signals” to what China calls Taiwan’s “independence forces.”
The policy of strategic ambiguity for Taiwan was established after Washington severed diplomatic relations with Taipei in 1979 to normalize with Beijing.
In recent years, US support for Taiwan has changed as Washington now views the island as a way to counter Beijing rather than as a problem in US-China relations. Biden’s comment came after the Senate Foreign Relations Committee moved forward a piece of legislation that would give Taiwan $6.5 billion in military aid and radically alter US policy toward the island.
It’s not even our bipartisan war congress doing this, it’s literally one man’s dementia that’s changing 70 years of One China policy.
Dementia Joe: Oh yeah, we’ll totally start WW3 over Taiwan
White House press secretary: don’t listen to what Dementa is telling you
So who the hell is even in charge here?
Did you miss this?
“Senate Panel Advances Bill That Would Radically Change US Taiwan Policy”
https://news.antiwar.com/2022/09/14/senate-panel-advances-bill-that-would-radically-change-us-taiwan-policy/
Or, this one: https://news.antiwar.com/2022/09/19/state-department-stops-publishing-military-expenditures-arms-transfer-report/
It’s not dementia, the US gov’t has used this tactic before. It’s intended to keep their enemies off-balance. We have a duplicitous nation of leaders. Why any nation puts trust in agreements or things that our government says seems incredibly naive.
Right. They are trying to provoke Beijing into moving on the island, … and to be able to deny they provoked it. And the tactic causes an even greater degree of instability with the POTUS perceived as mentally incompetent.
china lodges a complaint to biden’s comments
“oh he is hurting our feelings with his words!”
when i was a kid i used to think that adults were smart guys
I’d rephrase that. Washington wants a fight now, to further its goal of stopping the rise of China as a peer competitor. It is using Taiwan to pick that fight, expecting to fight with sanctions rather than violence, much as it wrongly understood the Ukraine situation.