The US is not encouraging Taiwanese independence — it is up to Taiwan to decide, US President Joe Biden said late on Tuesday after generating confusion with a comment suggesting that Taiwan is “independent.”
Speaking with reporters in New Hampshire, where he was promoting his recently signed infrastructure law, Biden said he told Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in their virtual meeting on Monday that the US would abide by its Taiwan Relations Act.
Referring to Taiwan, he then said: “It’s independent. It makes its own decisions.”
Photo: Bloomberg
Biden later clarified as he was about to leave New Hampshire that “we [the US] are not encouraging independence.”
“We’re not going to change our policy at all,” he added.
Asked specifically about the “independent” comment, Biden said: “I said that they have to decide — they, Taiwan, not us.”
“We’re encouraging that they do exactly what the Taiwan act requires,” he said, likely referring to the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act, which has served as a cornerstone of the US’ Taiwan policy since official diplomatic ties were severed that year.
“That’s what we’re doing. Let them make up their mind. Period,” he said.
What part of the act Biden was referring to is unclear, as it does not mention Taiwanese independence or Taiwan deciding for itself on the issue of independence, something that Beijing has said it would not accept and would stop by force if necessary.
The comments came after Biden, in his meeting with Xi, reiterated his administration’s commitment to the “one China” policy, under which the US “acknowledges” that there is only one “China” across the Taiwan Strait and that the People’s Republic of China is the sole legitimate government representing “China.”
Biden underscored that the US “strongly opposes unilateral efforts to change the status quo, or undermine peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” a readout of the meeting said.
Speaking to reporters following the meeting between Biden and Xi, a senior official in the US administration reiterated that the US does not support Taiwanese independence.
It was just the latest comment by Biden to cause confusion regarding the US’ China policy and whether Washington is changing long-standing positions.
Last month, Biden suggested that the US would defend Taiwan if it were attacked by China — something that Washington has always inferred, but had never said outright.
The White House later issued a statement saying that US policy on the issue had not changed.
Also on Tuesday, White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said that US engagement with China would intensify to ensure that competition between them does not veer into conflict.
Sullivan said in a Brookings Institution Webinar that the two leaders had agreed that “we would look to begin to carry forward discussion on strategic stability.”
“President Biden did raise with President Xi the need for a strategic stability set of conversations... That that needs to be guided by the leaders and led by senior empowered teams on both sides that cut across security, technology and diplomacy,” Sullivan added.
“You will see at multiple levels an intensification of the engagement to ensure there are guardrails around this competition, so that it doesn’t veer off into conflict,” he said.
Taiwan has arranged for about 8 million barrels of crude oil, or about one-third of its monthly needs, to be shipped from the Red Sea this month to bypass the Strait of Hormuz and ease domestic supply pressures, CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) said yesterday. The state-run oil company has worked with Middle Eastern suppliers to secure routes other than the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20 percent of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas typically passes, CPC chairman Fang Jeng-zen (方振仁) said at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee in Taipei. Suppliers in Saudi Arabia have indicated they
A global survey showed that 60 percent of Taiwanese had attained higher education, second only to Canada, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan easily surpassed the global average of 43 percent and ranked ahead of major economies, including Japan, South Korea and the US, data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) for 2024 showed. Taiwan has a high literacy rate, data released by the ministry showed. As of the end of last year, Taiwan had 20.617 million people aged 15 or older, accounting for 88.5 percent of the total population, with a literacy rate of 99.4 percent, the data
CCP ‘PAWN’? Beijing could use the KMT chairwoman’s visit to signal to the world that many people in Taiwan support the ‘one China’ principle, an academic said Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) yesterday arrived in China for a “peace” mission and potential meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), while a Taiwanese minister detailed the number of Chinese warships currently deployed around the nation. Cheng is visiting at a time of increased Chinese military pressure on Taiwan, as the opposition-dominated Legislative Yuan stalls a government plan for US$40 billion in extra defense spending. Speaking to reporters before going to the airport, Cheng said she was going on a “historic journey for peace,” but added that some people felt uneasy about her trip. “If you truly love Taiwan,
NEW LOW: The council in 2024 based predictions on a pessimistic estimate for the nation’s total fertility rate of 0.84, but last year that rate was 0.69, 17 percent lower An expected National Development Council (NDC) report expects the nation’s population to drop below 12 million by 2065, with the old-age dependency ratio to top 100 percent sooner than 2070, sources said yesterday. The council is slated to release its latest population projections in August, using an ultra-low fertility model, the sources said. The previous report projected that Taiwan’s population would fall to 14.37 million by 2070, but based on a new estimate of the total fertility rate (TFR) — the average number of children born to a woman over her lifetime — the population is expected to reach 12 million by
RSS