U.S. President Joe Biden reiterated his country’s support for Taiwan, saying on Monday that his administration is willing to defend Taiwan with force if there is an attack by China’s communist party (CCP) on the mainland.
When a reporter asked whether Biden would be “willing to get involved militarily to defend Taiwan if it comes to that?” during the May 23 press conference in Tokyo, he replied with a flat “Yes.”
Biden then added, “It’s the commitment we made. Look, here’s the situation. We agree with a ‘One China’ policy, we’ve signed onto it, and all the intended agreements made from there. But the idea that [Taiwan] can be taken by force … is just not appropriate,” he said of the CCP’s threats to its neighboring self-governed island.
“It will dislocate the entire region, and be another action similar to what happened in Ukraine. And so it’s a burden that is even stronger.”
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who was also in attendance at the press conference, agreed.
“Any unilateral attempts to change the status quo by force—like Russia’s aggression against Ukraine—should never be tolerated in the Indo-Pacific, above all in east Asia,” he said in reference to China.
“Based on this shared awareness, I have stated my determination to fundamentally reinforce Japan’s defence capability and secure substantial increase of its defence budget, and President Biden has strongly supported this.”
Biden criticized China for “flirting with danger” by flying their fighter jets so close to Taiwan’s airspace and other maneuvers in the Taiwan Strait. But of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan, Biden said, “My expectation is it will not happen, it will not be attempted.
“A lot of it depends on just how strongly the world makes it clear that that kind of action is going to result in long term disapprobation by the rest of the community,” he added.
The “One China Policy” abided to by the United States and other world governments is different from the CCP’s “One China Principle,” although the Chinese regime only recognizes its version of the policy. China considers Taiwan as part of its territory for the CCP to govern.
