() — In an interview broadcast on Sunday, US President Joe Biden said US military personnel would defend Taiwan if the Chinese military were to launch an invasion of the democratically-ruled island, in comments that once again seemed to go further. beyond the old US policy on the issue.
The comments in the program CBS’s “60 Minutes” They reiterate the promise to defend Taiwan that Biden made earlier, although this Sunday he specified that “American men and women” would participate in the effort.
In an interview, Biden was asked if “American forces, American men and women, would defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion,” a prospect that US officials privately fear is increasingly likely.
“Yes,” Biden said.
This is not the first time that Biden has gone beyond the traditional US approach of “strategic ambiguity” when it comes to the defense of Taiwan in his public comments. Recently, during a visit to tokyo in mayBiden said the United States would intervene militarily if China tries to take Taiwan by force.
The White House was quick to downplay Biden’s earlier comments on Taiwan, reiterating that US policy has not changed, and this Sunday “60 Minutes” reported that it had received a response similar to Biden’s responses in his interview.
Beijing was quick to condemn Biden’s comments, repeating its warning that China reserves the “option to take all necessary steps” to defend its territorial integrity and sovereignty.
“The US comments seriously violate the one-China principle and the provisions of the three US-China joint communiqués. It is also a serious violation of the important commitment made by the US side not to support Taiwan independence,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning said at a briefing on Monday.
“It sends a serious wrong signal to the Taiwan independence separatist forces. China expresses its strong discontent and firm opposition and has made serious representations to the US side,” Mao added.
The statements come at a time of great tension
Taiwan is less than 180 kilometers from the Chinese coast. For more than 70 years, the two sides have been governed separately, but that hasn’t stopped China’s ruling Communist Party from claiming the island as its own, despite never having controlled it.
China’s leader Xi Jinping has said “reunification” between China and Taiwan is inevitable and refuses to rule out the use of force. Tensions between Beijing and Taipei are at their highest in decades, with the Chinese military holding major military exercises near the island.
Under the “one China” policy, the United States recognizes China’s position that Taiwan is part of it, but has never officially recognized the Communist Party’s claim to the self-governing island of 23 million people. The United States provides Taiwan with defensive weapons, but has remained intentionally ambiguous about whether it would intervene militarily in the event of a Chinese attack.
Biden repeated his commitment to those policies in the “60 Minutes” interview.
“We agree with what we signed a long time ago. And that there is a ‘one China’ policy, and Taiwan makes its own judgments about its independence. We don’t move… we don’t encourage them to be independent… That’s their decision,” he said.
But when asked if US forces would defend the island, he said they would: “Yes, if there was indeed an unprecedented attack.”
Biden’s comments on Sunday are likely to spark further speculation about possible changes in US policy toward Taiwan, but analysts noted that his choice of words offered room for interpretation and was far from unequivocal.
Drew Thompson, a visiting fellow at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore, said “we’re always tempted to read too much into the president’s remarks” but that Biden’s view hadn’t really changed.
Thompson, a former US Defense Department official, said the specific nature of any US defense does not necessarily mean there are US boots on the ground in Taiwan.
In the event of a Chinese attack on the island, the Pentagon would present Biden with “a spectrum of options” for the deployment of US forces, he said.
The use of US naval or air resources in an offshore role, including US cyber resources to hinder a potential Chinese invasion, or simply a US show of force in the region could be among those options.
Biden’s latest remarks may further strain US-China relations, following strong opposition from Beijing to US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taipei in August. Beijing responded to her trip by suspending all dialogue with the US on major issues, from climate change to military relations, while conducting extensive military exercises around Taiwan.
The Taiwan question was also one of the key points of last week’s meeting between Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin at a regional summit in Uzbekistan, with both agreeing that Chinese sovereignty over the island is a ” red line” non-negotiable.
Xi also said he appreciated “Russia’s adherence to the ‘one China’ principle,” stressing that Taiwan is a part of China.
Speculation about Chinese preparations
Debates over the likelihood of a possible Chinese invasion have intensified following Russia’s unprovoked attack on Ukraine, with many analysts suggesting that Beijing will likely be carefully monitoring the situation in Europe.
The US intelligence community has made clear its belief that China is actively trying to build a military capable of taking over Taiwan, even in the face of US support for the island.
Last week, CIA Deputy Director David Cohen said that while Xi has not made the decision to invade Taiwan, he wants the Chinese People’s Liberation Army to have the ability to take control of the island by force by 2027. .
The US intelligence community does not believe that Beijing has made a decision on whether to proceed or not, Cohen said, adding that it is believed that Xi would prefer to gain control of Taiwan by “non-military means.”
The CIA official also said the agency is paying close attention to the lessons China is learning from the war in Ukraine.
“We’re looking very carefully at how the Chinese are understanding the situation in Ukraine: how the Russians have acted, how the Ukrainians have acted, and the implications of that for their own plans such as in Taiwan,” Cohen said.
‘s Katie Bo Lillis and Nectar Gan contributed to this report.
Add Comment