Biden, again, says U.S. would help Taiwan if China attacks

President Biden waves as first lady Jill Biden stands on the steps of Air Force One before boarding a plane to watch Saturday at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland.

President Biden said the United States will defend Taiwan if China launches an “unprecedented attack” on the country, the latest in a string of comments he has made over the past year that have been unusually clear about U.S. intentions in the face of growing pressure from Beijing.
In an interview with the CBS News program “60 Minutes” that aired Sunday, Biden was asked if the United States would launch an attack on the island.

On Sunday, Biden was asked if the U.S. military would defend Taiwan – a self-ruling democracy about 100 miles off the coast of China that is claimed by Beijing as part of China.

“Yes, if in fact there was an unprecedented attack,” Biden replied.
Asked again if, unlike Ukraine, the U.S. military would step in in the event of a Chinese invasion, Biden replied.” Yes.”

Since mid-2021, Biden has made similar public comments three times suggesting the United States would become involved in a conflict over Taiwan.

Some observers say the remarks contradict the U.S. administration’s long-standing tendency to be vague on defending Taiwan as a way to discourage China and Taiwan from taking steps that could change the status quo.

The White House said the remarks did not represent a change in U.S. policy.

A White House spokesman said after the “60 Minutes” interview aired.” The president has said this before ……. He also made clear then that our Taiwan policy has not changed. That remains the case.”

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told a news conference in Beijing that China has filed a formal complaint with the United States over Biden’s remarks.

She urged the United States not to send “any wrong signals to the separatist forces of Taiwan independence in order to avoid further damage to U.S.-China relations and peace and development.
U.S. relations and the peace and stability of the Taiwan Strait.”

China’s ruling Communist Party sees Taiwan as the unfinished business of the civil war, which ended in 1949 when the defeated Kuomintang fled to the island. Beijing has vowed to bring Taiwan back – preferably through peaceful means, it says, but also by force if necessary.
However, public opinion polls show that the vast majority of Taiwan’s 23 million people prefer the status quo and oppose reunification with China.

Biden said the United States does not encourage Taiwan’s independence — a red line for Beijing — but added, “Taiwan makes its own judgment about their independence …… That’s their decision.”

By law, the United States is obligated to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself. The debate over what that should look like has intensified in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. China has also shifted the balance of power on both sides of the Taiwan Strait through a comprehensive, multi-year modernization of its armed forces.

While U.S. officials insist that U.S. policy toward Taiwan has not changed, informal relations between Washington and Taipei have heated up as tensions between the United States and China have worsened in recent years.

In a July phone call, Chinese leader Xi Jinping warned Biden to stay out of the Taiwan issue, saying “those who play with fire will eventually be burned.”

Last month, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan, becoming the highest-ranking U.S. official to set foot on the island since Newt Gingrich traveled there as House speaker in 1997.

China was outraged by the visit, and in the weeks since, it has conducted military exercises near Taiwan and flown warplanes over the median line in the center of the Taiwan Strait, separating Taiwan from the mainland.

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