The US won't come to Taiwan's aid should China attack the country for making a unilateral declaration of independence, US Senator Joseph Biden said on Monday.
Speaking to the National Press Club in Washington, Biden warned both sides of the Strait to refrain from "reckless action."
The US politician, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, visited Taiwan early last month and met with President Chen Shui-bian (
During that trip, Biden said the Taiwan Relations Act remained the key document governing America's commitments to Taiwan -- remarks widely seen as an attempt to counter a promise by US President George W. Bush that America would do "whatever it took" to defend the country.
Biden in his speech argued for the retention of what he called the "studied ambiguity'' of the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act, whereby the US would remain ambiguous on whether it would help Taiwan repel a Chinese attack.
That act, he said, told Taiwan "you are no longer an independent country. You are no longer an independent nation-state. We've agreed that you are going to be part of China and that you will work it out."
Biden also punctuated his comments with a clear warning: "So don't go declaring independence, because we are not willing to go to war over your unilateral declaration of independence."
President Chen has said there is no need to declare independence, as the country is already sovereign and the master of its own affairs.
Biden said the ambiguous wording of the Taiwan Relations Act leaves unanswered the question of whether the US would defend Taiwan, "so we don't encourage reckless action on either side."
"Depending on how each of the parties behaves," he said, "we reserve the right, as we do in every circumstance, to use American forces. ... It will depend upon the circumstances. That's how it's been for seven presidents. That's how it should remain."
The US senator also warned China, saying that the Taiwan Relations Act also lets Beijing know that "if the mainland attempts to [unify with Taiwan] by force and not dialogue, then the United States will provide the military means in terms of material to prevent that from happening."
Biden said that America's "one China" policy rests on cross-strait dialogue, "where the parties mutually arrive at how unification will take place."
Turning his attention to US military spending, Biden said US resources would be better spent helping Taiwan to improve its defenses rather pursuing a multi-billion-dollar national missile defense system.
The senator outlined a number of alternative ways money could be spent -- in particular drawing attention to the condition of plumbing systems at Taiwan's military installations.
"While we're at it, we may fix the plumbing in the barracks at Taipei, which I just visited ... they had to bring in water hoses from outside to allow the women and men in there to be able to shave, to be able to use the bathroom, let alone drink any water," he said.
Biden's comments -- the first since he visited Taiwan -- dealt mainly with his opposition to Bush's missile defense plan.
He warned that the defense shield could spark an arms race, with China, India, Pakistan and other countries boosting their nuclear missile capabilities in response.
DAREDEVIL: Honnold said it had always been a dream of his to climb Taipei 101, while a Netflix producer said the skyscraper was ‘a real icon of this country’ US climber Alex Honnold yesterday took on Taiwan’s tallest building, becoming the first person to scale Taipei 101 without a rope, harness or safety net. Hundreds of spectators gathered at the base of the 101-story skyscraper to watch Honnold, 40, embark on his daredevil feat, which was also broadcast live on Netflix. Dressed in a red T-shirt and yellow custom-made climbing shoes, Honnold swiftly moved up the southeast face of the glass and steel building. At one point, he stepped onto a platform midway up to wave down at fans and onlookers who were taking photos. People watching from inside
A Vietnamese migrant worker yesterday won NT$12 million (US$379,627) on a Lunar New Year scratch card in Kaohsiung as part of Taiwan Lottery Co’s (台灣彩券) “NT$12 Million Grand Fortune” (1200萬大吉利) game. The man was the first top-prize winner of the new game launched on Jan. 6 to mark the Lunar New Year. Three Vietnamese migrant workers visited a Taiwan Lottery shop on Xinyue Street in Kaohsiung’s Gangshan District (崗山), a store representative said. The player bought multiple tickets and, after winning nothing, held the final lottery ticket in one hand and rubbed the store’s statue of the Maitreya Buddha’s belly with the other,
Japan’s strategic alliance with the US would collapse if Tokyo were to turn away from a conflict in Taiwan, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said yesterday, but distanced herself from previous comments that suggested a possible military response in such an event. Takaichi expressed her latest views on a nationally broadcast TV program late on Monday, where an opposition party leader criticized her for igniting tensions with China with the earlier remarks. Ties between Japan and China have sunk to the worst level in years after Takaichi said in November that a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan could bring about a Japanese
‘COMMITTED TO DETERRENCE’: Washington would stand by its allies, but it can only help as much as countries help themselves, Raymond Greene said The US is committed to deterrence in the first island chain, but it should not bear the burden alone, as “freedom is not free,” American Institute in Taiwan Director Raymond Greene said in a speech at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research’s “Strengthening Resilience: Defense as the Engine of Development” seminar in Taipei yesterday. In the speech, titled “Investing Together and a Secure and Prosperous Future,” Greene highlighted the contributions of US President Donald Trump’s administration to Taiwan’s defense efforts, including the establishment of supply chains for drones and autonomous systems, offers of security assistance and the expansion of
RSS