Asked at a press conference in Tokyo on an Asian trip whether or not the U.S. would defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion, 79-year-old President Joe Biden said, “yes.” Since former President Jimmy Carter signed the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act recognizing only one China in Beijing, the U.S. no longer had a mutual defense treaty with Taiwan. Carter’s Taiwan Relations Act superseded the 1954 Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty, obligating the U.S. to defend Taiwan from any foreign invasion. Since Carter signed the Taiwan Relations Act, all presidents presented “strategic ambiguity” on the question of defending Taiwan. “That’s a commitment we made,” Biden said, answering a hypothetical question about a Chinese invasion. Biden had to immediately walk back in gaffe, realizing that his statement about defending Taiwan changed U.S. policy under the Taiwan Relations Act.
U.S. longstanding policy of “strategic ambiguity” requires the State Department to say the U.S. supports the independence of Taiwan but, at the same time, recognizes Beijing’s sovereignty. Biden couldn’t walk the fine line instead apparently stating a new U.S. policy on Taiwan. “I think it is unlikely that allies will perceive this as a gaffe, even as the White House insists that there has been no change in policy,” Corey Wallace said, an expert on Japanese politics at Kanagawa University. Japanese Prime Minister Fumo Kishida backs Taiwan independence, despite recognizing only one China. “Greater U.S. commitment or involvement with regards to Taiwan will certainly be appreciated by Kishida and others in the Japanese government,” Wallace said. Yet despite all the attempt to make Biden’s comments consistent with the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act, they appear to deviate.
U.S.-Chinese relations have deteriorated under Biden, who blamed China for committing egregious human right violations against Muslim Uyghurs in Xinjiang Province in Western China. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, 59, and 45-year-old National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan infuriated China March 18, 2021 at a get-to-know-you summit in Anchorage, Alaska. Biden, Blinken and Sullivan got off on the wrong foot with China accusing Beijing of genocide. On the same day that Blinken and Sullivan infuriated China, Biden called 59-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin a “soulless killer,” setting up the confrontation now going on in Ukraine. Whether admitted or not by the White House or U.S. press, the White House runs a proxy war against the Russian Federation. Funding Ukraine $40 billion, Biden seeks nothing short of ousting Putin from power.
Biden’s hostile relations with Beijing has driven China’s 69-year-old President Xi Jinping into closer ties with Moscow. When Putin invaded Ukraine Feb. 24, Biden placed pressure on China to denounce Moscow’s Ukraine’s war. Xi has remained neutral though voicing his wish for peace in the region. But Biden couldn’t get Xi, India’s 71-year-old Prime Minister Narenda Modi or Saudi Arabia’s 36-year-old Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to denounce Putin’s military action in Ukraine. Biden and Ukraine’s 44-year-old President Volodymyr Zelensky insist they’re winning the war against Putin but it’s not matched by the amount of land Russia seized on Ukraine’s Black Sea coastline. All indications point to Putin partitioning Ukraine, land-locking the country away from its ports and strategic coastline. So if Ukraine’s really winning the war, why has Putin managed to seize most of Ukraine’s Black Sea coastline? Biden’s in an existential battle with the Russian Federation.
Making enemies of normally strategic adversaries has made foreign policy more complicated under Biden. Saying the U.S. would defend Taiwan militarily is like waving a red flag in front of a bull. Changing U.S. foreign policy by gaffe is a dangerous policy for Biden or any U.S. president. Biden knows that the U.S. has its hands full in Ukraine, in no position to start challenging Beijing. Biden’s remarks weren’t taken well in Beijing where it’s likely to continue sending menacing faux bombing missions into the Taiwan Strait. Kishida’s government favors defending Taiwan, despite the fact it can ill-afford to start taking on Beijing. Biden’s State Department will immediately walk back any change of U.S. policy on Taiwan. Stretched to the breaking point supplying Ukraine lethal weapons and logistics, the Pentagon is in no position to start another battlefront this time in Taiwan.
Claiming that the U.S. government would defend Taiwan against a Chinese invasion, Biden changed the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act. With the U.S. mired in the Ukraine War, supplying unlimited cash and arms to Ukraine, there’s no way that the U.S. could get into a shooting war with Beijing. When the U.S. battled Korea to loggerheads in the 1953 Korean War, it was largely the Peoples Liberation Army that did the fighting. Biden surely doesn’t want to open a new front in Taiwan, when the Pentagon can’t make progress in Ukraine. Biden knows the U.S. lacks the sufficient numbers in the voluntary military to defend Taiwan with Beijing. Biden’s new policy, going back to the original 1954 Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty, wn’t work. Biden’s belligerent approach to Russia and China has compromised U.S. national security, where there’s no help at all from U.S. adversaries around the globe.
