Biden delivered straight talk on Taiwan
— contradicting a deliberately ambiguous U.S. policy. Did he misspeak? Donna Cassata@WP 20211023
President
Biden was speaking at a forum hosted by CNN on Thursday when the topic turned to
China and the reports of increasingly threatening behavior toward Taiwan.
Asked by a member of the audience if the United States would commit to protect Taiwan in the event of a war, Biden appeared to respond affirmatively.
“Are you saying
that the United States would come to Taiwan’s defense if China attacked?” host Anderson
Cooper interjected.
“Yes. We have a commitment,” Biden quickly responded.
With those
five words, the U.S. president initially appeared to have upset the obtusely worded
but carefully managed American policy of “strategic ambiguity” toward Taiwan — basically
a policy that deliberately makes unclear the answer to the question Cooper asked.
The remarks
prompted responses from both Beijing and Taipei on Friday. However, the White House quickly clarified that
“there is no change in our policy.” Most analysts
believe simply that Biden misspoke.
“There has been no shift. The president was not announcing any change in
our policy, nor has he made a decision to change our policy,” White press secretary
Jen Psaki said at a briefing Friday.
Taiwan, a
self-governing island that Beijing claims as its own, sits in an unusual place in
U.S. foreign policy, without diplomatic recognition but working closely with Washington
on many issues.
Biden is not
the first U.S. leader to stumble when it comes to the norms of the U.S. relationship
with Taiwan: Before he became president, Donald Trump sparked an international scandal
by accepting a call of congratulations from Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen
after winning the 2016 election.
WHAT TO KNOW
- What
is ‘strategic ambiguity’?
- How
do China and Taiwan view ‘strategic ambiguity’?
- Is
this a policy change?
What is ‘strategic ambiguity’?
When the United
States opened diplomatic relations with Communist-led China in 1979, it agreed to
break off formal ties with Taiwan, a democratic island with a government then controlled
by Nationalists who had fled mainland China in 1949 after losing a civil war.
With the unusual
exception of Trump and Tsai, there has been no direct contact between the leaders
of the United States and Taiwan since.
The United
States, however, did not completely break off its relationship with Taiwan. On April
10, 1979, President Jimmy Carter signed into law the Taiwan Relations Act, which
set out a series of provisions for unofficial but substantive
relations with Taiwan.
However, while
that act said that “the United States will make available to Taiwan such defense
articles and defense services in such quantity as may be necessary to enable Taiwan
to maintain sufficient self-defense capabilities,” it did not specifically say whether
the United States would support Taipei in the event of a war with China.
This stance
came to be known as “strategic ambiguity” — a policy that allows the United States
to remain deliberately ambiguous on the question of Taiwan’s defense, even as it
enjoys otherwise close relations including arms sales.
The United
States also operates under the one-China policy, by which it acknowledges Beijing’s
position that there is only one China, with the understanding
that Taiwan’s fate will not be decided by force.
The threat
of military conflict with China has long loomed over Taiwan, but recent Chinese
aggressions have set off new fears. Here’s
what happens next. (Jason Aldag/The Washington Post)
How do China and Taiwan view ‘strategic
ambiguity’?
Over recent
years, military exercises by China have appeared to test the limits of U.S. support
for Taiwan, prompting some officials from the island to wonder if they are out of
date.
In an interview
with The Washington Post’s Today’s WorldView newsletter a year ago,
Taiwan’s de facto ambassador to the United States called for a change. “We need some degree
of clarity,” said Bi-khim Hsiao, representative
of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in Washington.
Chinese officials,
at a Foreign Ministry briefing on Friday, criticized Biden’s remarks on Taiwan:
The United States should “be cautious with its words and actions on the Taiwan issue,
and not send any wrong signals to the separatist forces of Taiwan independence,
so as not to seriously damage China-U.S. relations and peace and stability in the
Taiwan Strait,” spokesperson Wang Wenbin said.
In Taiwan,
a spokesperson for President Tsai said the island was focused on defending itself.
“Taiwan will demonstrate our firm determination
to defend ourselves and continue to work with countries with similar values to make
a positive contribution toward the Taiwan Strait and Indo-Pacific region’s peace
and stability,” Chang Tun-han said, according to the Associated Press.
Is this a policy change?
U.S. officials
have repeatedly emphasized that policy toward Taiwan has not changed. Speaking in Brussels after a NATO conference on
Friday, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the
United States remained committed to the one-China policy and had no wish for conflict.
“Nobody wants
to see cross-Strait issues come to blows — certainly not President Biden, and there’s
no reason that it should,” Austin said.
Some analysts
have suggested that Biden, like others before him, appears to be grappling with
the often obtuse language of the U.S.-Taiwan relationship.
In a statement
released early this month, Biden said that he and China’s Xi Jinping had agreed to follow the “Taiwan agreement.”
It was not
clear what he was referring to.
In an interview
with ABC News in August, Biden also appeared to suggest that the United States had a commitment to protect Taiwan.
“We made a
sacred commitment to Article 5 that if in fact
anyone were to invade or take action against our NATO
allies, we would respond. Same with Japan, same with South Korea, same with — Taiwan. It’s not even comparable to talk about that,” Biden
said in an interview after the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Biden may
not be the only administration official to misspeak. U.S. Secretary
of State Antony Blinken has referred to Taiwan as
a “country” at least twice in public.
Despite widespread
speculation and pressure from some lawmakers to rethink “strategic ambiguity,”
U.S. officials have repeatedly said there has been no change in policy.
Donna Cassata
contributed reporting from Washington.
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