U.S. President Joe Biden has once again put Beijing on notice regarding China’s most sensitive issue, saying he was “not ruling out using U.S. military force” in response to a potential Chinese invasion of democratic Taiwan.
During an interview with Time magazine, published Tuesday, Joe Biden made these remarks saying he has “made clear” to Chinese President Xi Jinping, the long-standing U.S. policy of refrain from endorsing Taiwanese independence, but added that he would defend the island “if China unilaterally tries to change” the status quo, stating that Washington has “been in consultation” with its allies in the region.
Biden, however, stopped short of saying if the U.S. would launch strikes from its military bases in Japan or the Philippines.
“I can’t get into that. You would then criticize me with good reason if I were to tell you,” he said in the wide-ranging interview held at the White House on May 28.
Under Biden, the U.S. has reinforced its network of alliances in Asia. This has especially been the case with ostensibly pacifist Japan, which has undergone its own dramatic transformation on security policy, and the Philippines, with Manila granting the U.S. military access to key bases facing Taiwan.
Analysts say those bases, as well as the ones in Japan’s Okinawa Prefecture, would be crucial in any defense of Taiwan — putting them in the crosshairs of China’s powerful missile arsenal.
Prominent Japanese officials, including Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, have underlined Tokyo’s view that any emergency over Taiwan would also represent a crisis for Japan, with the far-flung island of Yonaguni, Okinawa Prefecture, sitting just 110 kilometers from Taiwan.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has taken a similar view, saying in an interview last year that, considering his country’s geographical proximity alone, “it’s very hard to imagine a scenario where the Philippines will not somehow get involved.”
In recent years, fears of a war over the island have risen in tandem with the growth of China’s military power, with top U.S. military officers even claiming Beijing could be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027.
Although this was not the first instance of Biden, 81, appearing to break with the U.S. stance of “strategic ambiguity” on Taiwan — he has repeatedly broke with precedent on the issue — it comes just days after China’s Defense minister railed against Washington for causing friction with Beijing with its support for the island.
Speaking before a major regional security conference in Singapore on Sunday, Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun called Taiwan the “core of core issues” for Beijing, and accused the U.S. of causing friction with its support for the island.
Beijing views Taiwan as a renegade province that must be united with the mainland, by force if necessary. China’s ruling Communist Party has pinned much of its legitimacy on the issue, and routinely uses it to stir up nationalist sentiment.
The United States switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979, but has maintained unofficial relations with Taiwan and is bound by law to supply the island with weapons to help it defend itself.
In terms of whether it would actually defend Taiwan in event of an attack, the U.S. has long taken an approach of strategic ambiguity designed to not only deter Beijing from using force against the island but also dissuade Taipei from seeking formal independence while giving it breathing room in its ties with both.
Biden — who has kept in place and even boosted tariffs on an array of Chinese exports in addition to slapping it’s tech sector with onerous measures — also took aim at what he said were brewing economic concerns for the Asian giant.
Citing China’s graying population, among other factors, he said: “Where is it going to grow? You’ve got an economy that’s on the brink there. The idea that their economy is booming? Give me a break.”
