US policy on Taiwan has not changed, a Washington official said after US President Joe Biden appeared to suggest that the US would defend Taiwan if it were attacked, a deviation from a long-held US position of “strategic ambiguity.”
In an interview aired by ABC News on Thursday, Biden was asked about the effects of the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan and responses in Chinese media telling Taiwan this showed Washington could not be relied on to come to its defense.
Biden replied that Taiwan, South Korea and NATO were fundamentally different situations to Afghanistan and appeared to lump Taiwan together with countries to which Washington has explicit defense commitments.
Photo: Reuters
“They are ... entities we’ve made agreements with based on not a civil war they’re having on that island or in South Korea, but on an agreement where they have a unity government that, in fact, is trying to keep bad guys from doing bad things to them,” he said.
“We have made — kept every commitment. We made a sacred commitment to Article 5 that if in fact anyone were to invade or take action against our NATO allies, we would respond. Same with Japan, same with South Korea, same with — Taiwan. It’s not even comparable to talk about that,” he added.
A senior Biden administration official said that the US “policy with regard to Taiwan has not changed” and analysts said it appeared that Biden had misspoken.
In Taipei, Presidential Office spokesman Xavier Chang (張惇涵) said they had “noted” Biden’s comments, and thanked his administration for “continuing to take practical actions” to show its “rock-solid” commitment to Taiwan in areas such as arms sales.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has emphasized that Taiwan’s “only choice” is to demonstrate its resolve in matters of self-defense, Chang added.
China’s embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
While Washington is required by law to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself, it has long followed a policy of “strategic ambiguity” on whether it would intervene militarily to protect Taiwan in the event of a Chinese attack.
Article 5 is a NATO agreement that states that an attack on one member of the alliance is viewed as an attack on all.
South Korea is also a US treaty ally with a mutual defense agreement, but US relations with Taiwan have been unofficial since Washington switched diplomatic recognition to Beijing in 1979.
Some prominent US academics and others have said that Washington should give Taiwan a more explicit security guarantee in light of increasing military pressure from Beijing, but US National Security Council Coordinator for the Indo-Pacific Kurt Campbell has appeared to reject this, saying in May that there were “significant downsides” to such an approach.
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan was asked about Taiwan this week and called it a “fundamentally different question in a different context” to Afghanistan.
“We believe our commitment to Taiwan ... remains as strong as it’s ever been,” he said, without specifying what the commitment was.
Additional reporting by CNA
AMPHIBIOUS EXERCISES: The defense ministry said that it had detected 24 Chinese PLA Air Force planes entering Taiwan’s air defense zone over the previous 24 hours Chinese movements around Taiwan were “abnormal,” Minister of National Defense Chiu Kuo-cheng (邱國正) said yesterday, flagging recent amphibious exercises in addition to drills Taipei has observed in China’s Fujian Province. Taiwan has reported a rise in Chinese military activity over the past week as dozens of fighters, drones, bombers and other aircraft, as well as warships, have operated around the nation. “Our initial analysis is that they are doing joint drills in September, including land, sea, air and amphibious,” Chiu told reporters at the legislature in Taipei. The “recent enemy situation is quite abnormal,” he said. The comments followed a statement from the
IN MOURNING: Tsai visited the site and spoke with family members of those killed, while all the major presidential candidates said they would temporarily halt campaigning A fire and subsequent explosions at a golf ball factory at Pingtung Technology Industrial Park (屏東科技產業園區) killed at least seven people, including four firefighters, and injured 98, while three were still missing, authorities said yesterday. The blaze at Launch Technologies Co’s (明揚國際) plant on Jingjian Road raged for more than 12 hours after it started at about 5pm on Friday, officials said. The Pingtung County Fire Bureau early yesterday used large excavators to search for missing people, while family members waited at the scene. Pingtung County Fire Bureau Director Hsu Mei-hsueh (許美雪) said the bureau received a call about the fire at 5:31pm
DETERRENCE: The president on Thursday is to launch the first indigenous submarine, which is to enter sea trials next month before being delivered to the navy next year Taiwan hopes to deploy at least two new, domestically developed submarines by 2027, and possibly equip later models with missiles to bolster its deterrence against the Chinese navy and protect key supply lines, the head of the program said. Taiwan has made the Indigenous Submarine Program a key part of an ambitious project to modernize its armed forces as Beijing stages almost daily military exercises. President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), who initiated the program when she took office in 2016, is expected to launch the first of eight new submarines on Thursday under a plan that has drawn on expertise and technology from
SDG AGENDA: Eswatini’s king told the UN that including Taiwan in the body is an essential next step to implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Marshall Islands President David Kabua on Wednesday called on the UN to rescind its interpretation of Resolution 2758, which bars Taiwan from participating in the international organization. There is still a “visible crack” in the UN, as it “will never be whole and complete without the meaningful participation of the 23 million people of Taiwan,” Kabua said in his address on the second day of the General Debate at the 78th General Assembly in New York. He also criticized the UN’s specialized agencies, meetings and mechanisms for what he described as their continuous efforts to close the doors to journalists and visitors