He likens the situation on the island to the war in Ukraine and is doubling his diplomatic and military efforts to stem Beijing’s rise.
On his first tour of Asia as president of the United States, Joe Biden took advantage of the Union of the West against Russia over the war in Ukraine to launch a serious warning to China on Monday. Comparing the situation, he has pledged to defend the island of Taiwan militarily if the Beijing regime invades it, as feared by his frequent calls for reunification.
Biden reacted bluntly to journalists after his meeting in Tokyo with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. “Yes, that’s the commitment we have,” he replied when asked if he would engage militarily in the event that China attacks Taiwan, Japan’s Kyodo agency said. “We support the ‘one China policy’, but that doesn’t mean Beijing has jurisdiction to take Taiwan by force. We strongly align ourselves with Japan and other countries to prevent this. I hope that doesn’t happen, that it is not even attempted. It all depends on how clearly the world shows the prolonged disapproval that such action would have had,” warned Biden, whose words were immediately criticized in Beijing.
“Taiwan is an inseparable part of China and it is a purely internal affair,” said one of the State Department spokesmen Wang Wenbin, who also sent a message to the White House. “Be careful with your words and don’t send the wrong signals to the separatist forces that want Taiwan’s independence,” he warned sternly in his daily appearance to the media.
Biden said Beijing “flies with danger by flying so close and with all the maneuvers it performs,” he denounced, citing frequent raids by Chinese planes into the Taiwan Air Defense Identification Zone.
It is not the first time Biden has upset Beijing with his comments, as he indicated in October that the US would intervene if China attacked the island. As on that occasion, the White House hastened to nuance its statements and ensure that its policy on the matter has not changed. Especially the American position. it is based on a calculated ‘strategic ambiguity’. Although Washington exchanged diplomatic ties with Taipei for Beijing in 1979, the Taiwan Relations Act allows it to supply weapons to defend itself, but without detailing military intervention.
In fact, Taipei is one of the largest buyers of US weapons and orders have increased in light of the growing threat from China. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which took place after Putin strengthened his alliance with President Xi Jinping at the opening of the Beijing Winter Olympics, many experts believe China could launch a similar offensive against Taiwan. In his bid to go down in history as the most powerful leader in China after Mao, Xi aspires to perpetuate himself in office and be the “hero” who reunites the “rebellious island”. But Putin’s failure and Western sanctions against Russia must certainly have dampened him.
In an effort to halt China’s diplomatic and commercial expansion into Asia, Biden has also announced the creation of an Indo-Pacific Economic Framework that includes the US and eleven other countries: Japan, South Korea, India, Australia, New Zealand , the Philippines, Singapore. , Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei. On the military front, Biden is chairing a summit of the Quad in Tokyo today, a security alliance with Japan, India and Australia that also has China in its sights.
Source: La Verdad
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