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Speaking in Japan, Biden appeared to contradict long-standing US policy in the region, although the White House insisted there had been no departure. Biden drew a parallel between Taiwan and Russia's invasion of Ukraine, prompting an indignant rebuke from Beijing. He is on his first tour of Asia as US president, touring nearby allies. Biden prefaced his feedback announcing US coverage towards Taiwan "has now no longer changed". But his comments in Tokyo are the second time in latest months he has unequivocally said the United States could shield Taiwan if China attacked, in what has been visible as a alternate in tone. The US has previously been indistinct on what it would do in such a state of affairs.
China regards Taiwan as a breakaway province that must be re-unified with the mainland. Beijing's overseas ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin insisted: "Taiwan is an inalienable a part of China's territory... there is no room for compromise or concession. "The Taiwan question and the Ukraine issue are fundamentally different. To examine those is absurd. We once again urge the United States to abide with the aid of using the One China principle." The US has no official diplomatic ties with Taiwan, but sells arms to it as a part of its Taiwan Relations Act, which states that the United States have to offer the island with the method to defend itself. At the identical time, it continues formal ties with China and additionally diplomatically recognizes China's position that there may be handiest one Chinese government.
Biden was answering questions in Tokyo during a press conference with Japanese PM Fumio Kishida, when a journalist asked them about the defense of Taiwan.
The US president began by directly linking the China-Taiwan situation to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. If there was a rapprochement eventually between Ukraine and Russia, and sanctions were not sustained, "then what does this signal to China about the cost of attempting to take Taiwan by force?" he asked.
"They are already flirting with danger right now by flying so close and all the maneuvers that they are undertaking," Biden said, referring to increasing reports of Chinese warplane incursions into Taiwan's self-declared air defense zone.
Chinese military aircraft regularly fly into Taiwan's self-declared air defense zone
He added that while "my expectation is that it [a Chinese invasion] will not happen, it will not be attempted", at the same time it depended on "how strong the world makes clear that that kind of action is going to result in long term disapprobation".
He was then asked directly if the US would defend Taiwan militarily if China invaded, when it has not done so in the invasion of Ukraine, and he responded: "Yes... that's the commitment we made."
"The idea that it [Taiwan] can be taken by force... is just not appropriate. It will dislocate the entire region and be another action similar to what happened in Ukraine."
It took the US State Department only minutes to start walking back Joe Biden's comments.
In March, he did something very similar when he said "Vladmir Putin cannot stay in power", forcing US officials to swiftly deny America was calling for regime change in Moscow. But when asked about it later, Biden did not backdown. He was, he said, expressing his "moral outrage" at what Putin was doing.
Today he seemed to be saying "I won't let that happen to Taiwan". The official position of the US government on Taiwan is "strategic ambiguity" -the US doesn't commit to defend Taiwan, but it doesn't say it wouldn't either. This is supposed to keep China guessing.
But as China has got stronger, and its threats to Taiwan more real, there have been voices calling for an end to this fudge.
Former Japanese PM Shinzo Abe recently said it was time for America to be clear to Beijing - and say it would defend Taiwan. Others think this is a really bad idea and could provoke Beijing in to accelerating its plans to retake the island.
Privately, many senior officials in Washington and Tokyo are extremely worried about Taiwan, about Beijing's growing military advantage, and they are fumbling for anew strategy to deal with the threat.
In the meantime, Biden seems to be speaking his own truth
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