US President Joe Biden said on Monday that the United States is willing to respond “militarily” if China intervenes in Taiwan with force. “That’s the commitment we made,” he told reporters in Tokyo.
“Here’s the situation,” Biden said during a joint press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. “We agree with the One China policy. We adhere to it, and all resulting agreements made from there, but the idea that Taiwan can be taken by force is (simply not) appropriate.”
Last year, the US president made similar remarks, but the White House intervened and said longstanding US policy had not changed towards the island.
The US supplies Taiwan with defensive weapons, but remains intentionally ambiguous about possible military intervention in the event of a Chinese attack.
Under the “One China” policy, the US recognizes the Chinese position that Taiwan is part of China, but has never officially recognized Beijing’s claim to the island of 23 million people.
In a statement following Biden’s comments on Monday, a White House official said the official US position remains unchanged.
“As the president said, our policy has not changed. He reiterated our One China policy and our commitment to peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. He also reiterated our commitment under the Taiwan Relations Act to provide the territory with the military means to defend itself. “, said the official.
Taiwan is less than 177 kilometers off the coast of China. For more than 70 years, the two sides were ruled separately, but that hasn’t stopped the Communist Party of China from claiming the island as its own – despite never having controlled it.
In recent weeks, Beijing has sent dozens of warplanes to Taiwan’s Air Defense Identification Zone, and Chinese leader Xi Jinping has said “reunification” between China and Taiwan is inevitable, refusing to rule out the use of force.

Biden compared a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine earlier this year, warning: “It will displace the entire region.” He also stressed that “Russia has to pay a long-term price for its actions.”
“And the reason why I say this, not just about Ukraine – if indeed, after all that he (Putin) has done, a rapprochement between the Ukrainians and Russia takes place, and these sanctions do not continue to be sustained. in many ways, so what signal does this send to China about the cost of trying to take Taiwan by force?”
Biden said China “is already flirting with danger now, flying so close and with all the maneuvers it’s doing.”
“But the United States is committed, we’ve made a commitment, we support the One China policy, we support everything we’ve done in the past, but that doesn’t mean, doesn’t mean that China has the capability, has the, I’m sorry, jurisdiction. to enter and use force to take over Taiwan,” he added.
China’s response
In response to Biden, China’s Foreign Ministry said on Monday that the US should not defend Taiwan’s independence.
China has no room for compromises or concessions on issues related to its sovereignty and territorial integrity, Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said at a press conference in Beijing.
“No one should underestimate the Chinese people’s steadfast resolve, will and ability to defend their national sovereignty and territorial integrity and should not oppose the 1.4 billion Chinese people,” Wang said.
Source: CNN Brasil

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