Joe Biden Continues to Irritate Xi Jinping’s China Over Possible U.S. Military Support for Taiwan.
This is the fourth time that Joe Biden has broken the traditional policy of deliberate ambiguity regarding Taiwan.
Does Joe Biden want to put an end to the American policy of deliberate ambiguity regarding Taiwan? In the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan, American troops would not hesitate to engage, the American president repeated during an interview on the program “60 Minutes”, broadcast Sunday, September 18, 2022, on CBS.
Asked whether “Americans would defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion,” the American leader answered bluntly: “Yes if an unprecedented attack were to occur.”
By American media count, this is the fourth time that Joe Biden has broken with the “strategic ambiguity” - a vagueness that ensures the status quo - that usually characterizes U.S. policy on the Taiwan issue.
In May 2022, Joe Biden assured that Beijing should expect an American military response to an invasion of the island of 23 million people. “Yes, that is the commitment we have made,” the American president replied during a visit to Japan.
“Strategic clarity”
Each time, however, the White House assures that Washington's policy is unchanged. A posture that challenges experts. “The fourth time @POTUS has approved strategic clarity. This is now US policy, despite the attempt by his administration (also for the fourth time) to backtrack,” points out David Sacks, a researcher at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).
“It is now time to fully implement this commitment and to fully dedicate ourselves to it,” he reacted on Twitter. While Joe Biden stressed in his interview that he was not “encouraging” the island to declare independence - “that's their decision,” he ruled - “that's technically true, but it would probably trigger a war with the mainland,” also pointed out Richard Haas, president of the CFR. The United States and the American president “must oppose unilateral actions by the mainland or Taiwan that would threaten peace,” he opined on Twitter.
China sees this as a “bad signal”
With each intervention, Joe Biden irritates Beijing a little more, which considers Taiwan to be one of its provinces. “This sends a bad signal, serious, (of support) to separatist forces militating for the independence of Taiwan,” said Mao Ning, a spokeswoman for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Relations between Beijing and Washington on the Taiwanese issue have been further strained this summer with the visit to the island of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi. In retaliation, China carried out extensive military exercises around Taiwan, an unprecedented show of force.
The U.S. Congress is largely supportive of Taiwan against Beijing.
A bill passed by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee provides for direct military aid to Taiwan of nearly 4.5 billion dollars over four years. It also suggests imposing sanctions on Chinese financial institutions in response to any hostile “escalation” towards Taiwan.
China has just announced that it intends to impose sanctions on the CEOs of Boeing Defense and Raytheon, in connection with U.S. arms sales to Taiwan.
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