Joe Biden sticks to US policy on Taiwan

Joe Biden said Washington’s longstanding policy on Taiwan ­remained in place, a day after his comment about readiness to ­defend the island against a ­Chinese invasion suggested a change.

US President Joe Biden with host Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at the Quad leaders’ meeting in Tokyo on Tuesday. Picture: Getty Images

Joe Biden said Washington’s longstanding policy on Taiwan ­remained in place, a day after his comment about readiness to ­defend the island against a ­Chinese invasion suggested a change.

“The policy has not changed at all. I stated that when I made my statement yesterday,” the US President said at the Quad leaders’ meeting in Tokyo on Tuesday.

Mr Biden’s latest declaration followed similar insistence from top US officials that a decades-old approach to Taiwan remained in place.

This included arming the democratic island for its own ­defence, while acknowledging China’s legal sovereignty and ­expressing “strategic ambiguity” on whether American troops would ever intervene.

The reassurances follow the President’s answer to a question at a press conference on Monday where he said “yes” after being asked if Washington would be willing to get involved militarily in Taiwan’s defence.

“That’s the commitment we made,” Mr Biden told a news conference, drawing a link between Taiwan and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and calling for Moscow to pay a “long-term price” as a message to China.

But the White House and Pentagon quickly said that US policy “has not changed” on Taiwan, just as Beijing voiced anger over Mr Biden, who has made similar ­remarks before in lower-profile settings.

Since switching recognition to Beijing in 1979, the US has committed to providing Taiwan with the means to defend itself but has kept a “strategic ambiguity” on whether it would intervene militarily.

A growing constituency, especially in the Republican Party, advocates a switch to “strategic clarity”, believing an explicit promise to defend Taiwan is needed to deter an increasingly assertive and powerful Beijing.

Sung Wen-ti, an expert on Taiwan at the Australian National University, said Mr Biden was trying to “have the cake and eat it too”.

“Biden’s ‘slip of tongue’ and subsequent walking back, when read as a Freudian slip, still increases perceived US resolve – the goal of strategic clarity – without incurring the costs of clarity,” he said.

Taiwan’s foreign ministry spokeswoman, Joanne Ou, offered a “sincere welcome and gratitude” to Mr Biden for his “rock-solid commitment”.

Bonnie Glaser, Asia director at the German Marshall Fund of the US, noted that polls in Taiwan had shown a sharp drop since the Ukraine invasion in confidence that Washington would defend the island, following propaganda by Beijing.

Ms Glaser said Mr Biden was also likely seeking to reassure his host, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who has voiced concern about instability in the Taiwan Strait.

Mr Biden “has weakened the policy of strategic ambiguity and I think that’s deliberate,” she said.

But Ms Glaser said the remarks left unanswered questions and that it was problematic to suggest that the US would defend Taiwan in all circumstances.

“I think confusion in our policy undermines deterrence,” she said.

Mr Biden also suggested that the US agreed with Beijing on there being only one China, ­although Washington in the landmark 1972 Shanghai communique said only that it acknowledged Beijing’s position.

Only last Friday, State Department spokesman Ned Price said that the US “does not subscribe to the PRC’s One China principle” and accused the People’s Republic of China of mischaracterising the US position.

In his willingness to defend ­Taiwan, Mr Biden was deviating sharply from his vocal rejection of committing US troops in Ukraine.

The US has poured aid into Ukraine, last week approving another $US40bn, but the President has warned that direct confrontation with Russia risked “World War III”.

China, like Russia, has nuclear weapons. But the Biden administration has described Beijing as the only long-term global competitor of the US.

The US and Australia have ­already voiced alarm that China could extend its reach into the ­Pacific through a new maritime deal with Solomon Islands.

And while the Russian invasion of Ukraine has had a major impact on wheat supply to the developing world, Taiwan has a resource vital to the US economy: about 92 per cent of the world’s most ­advanced semiconductors.

The US has been gradually chipping away at its reticence on Taiwan, letting US officials meet openly with counterparts and pressing for the island’s inclusion in international organisations.

Senator Tom Cotton, a hawkish Republican, said that Mr Biden needed to state a shift to “strategic clarity” in a clear, prepared text.

“Otherwise, the continued ­ambiguity and uncertainty will likely provoke the Chinese communists without deterring them – the worst of both worlds,” Senator Cotton said.

AFP