(Baltimore) U.S. President Joe Biden said Thursday that the United States is ready to defend Taiwan militarily in the event of an attack by China, which considers Taiwan part of its territory.
“Yeah, we’re committed to that,” Joe Biden told Baltimore voters in an exchange broadcast on CNN.
The U.S. president’s statement goes against so-called “strategic ambiguity” US policy, which allows Washington to build and strengthen its defenses in Taiwan without explicitly promising to come to its aid in the event of an attack.
In an interview with the ABC this summer, the US president made a similar promise, talking about the “sacred commitment” to protect NATO allies in Canada and Europe, as well as “in Japan, Korea, the South and Taiwan.”
Following Joe Biden’s Thursday night’s statements, he told White House reporters that US policy on Taiwan had not “changed.”
Photo by Jonathan Ernst, Reuters
US President Joe Biden
When asked if the United States could respond to the development of military programs in China, Fiden responded with a pledge.
“Don’t worry … they will be even more powerful,” he said. “China, Russia and the rest of the world know that we have the most powerful military capability in the world,” he added.
However he acknowledged that their numbers were not enough to defeat America’s rival nations.
“Does not trust” China in Taiwan
However, he reiterated his desire not to engage in a new Cold War with Beijing.
During a news conference on Thursday, Chinese Ambassador to the UN Zhang Jun asked about the Taiwanese document and insisted that his country was not under attack.
China is in a “security” position. “We are fighting to maintain our sovereignty and our territorial integrity,” he said.
“We are not the problem makers. On the contrary, some countries, especially the United States, are taking dangerous steps that could directly lead to a dangerous situation in Taiwan,” he added.
“We have to call on the United States to stop such a practice. It is not in anyone’s interest to drag Taiwan against the wall,” he told the Chinese embassy.
China and the United States face off on a number of issues in the context of the Cold War, but the Taiwan issue alone is seen as one of the triggers for the armed conflict.
The next ambassador to Beijing, industrial diplomat Nicholas Burns, said Wednesday in Taiwan that China should not be “trusted” and suggested selling more weapons to the island to strengthen its security.
Mr. He condemned the recent Chinese incursions into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone, calling them “reprehensible.”
The United States has recognized the People’s Republic of China since 1979, but at the same time demands that the US Congress provide Taiwan with weapons for its defense.
The island has had its own government since the Communists conquered mainland China in 1949, but Beijing considers the territory as one of its provinces and threatens to use force in the event of the island formally declaring independence.
However, Chinese President Xi Jinping recently reaffirmed his desire to achieve “peaceful” reunification.
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