In a 60 Minutes interview, President Joe Biden said the U.S. would defend Taiwan if China were to attack the island, but a White House official later "corrected” Biden's statement and said Washington’s stance on Taiwan has not changed.
President Biden broke with the U.S.'s traditional stance of “strategic ambiguity” on Taiwan during a CBS 60 Minutes interview that was broadcast on Sunday when he said American troops would defend the island if China were to attack it, CNBC reported.
“We agree with what we signed onto a long time ago, and there’s the one-China policy, and Taiwan makes their own judgments about their independence,” Biden said, according to a 60 Minutes Twitter post. "We’re not encouraging their being independent. That’s their decision....Yes, if in fact there was an unprecedented attack.”
A White House spokesperson said Washington's position on Taiwan has not changed, stating, “The president has said this before, including in Tokyo earlier this year. He also made clear then that our Taiwan policy hasn’t changed. That remains true,” according to CNBC.
Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said in a briefing that China was “strongly dissatisfied and resolutely opposed” to Biden's statement, CNBC reported. Taiwan's foreign ministry thanked Biden for confirming the “U.S. government’s rock-solid security commitment to Taiwan."
“When any president says something like this three times on the record and is 'corrected' three times on the record anonymously by staff: 1) President means it, 2) Staff authorized to contradict president, 3) Chief of Staff should be fired, 4) Staffer should not be anonymous,” Steve Yates, chair of the China Policy Initiative at the America First Policy Institute, said in a Sept. 19 post on Twitter.
The Taiwan Relations Act, enacted in 1979, asserts the U.S. aims to maintain peaceful trade and cultural relations with both Taiwan and China, but specifies “the United States shall provide Taiwan with arms of a defensive character and shall maintain the capacity of the United States to resist any resort to force or other forms of coercion that would jeopardize the security, or social or economic system, of the people of Taiwan,” according to the Congressional Record.
Biden had a phone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping leading up to Speaker Nancy Pelosi's recent visit to Taiwan, during which Biden reportedly insisted the United States is still committed to the One China Policy, Politico reported in July. Biden said the U.S. position on Taiwan “has not changed,” meaning the White House does not support Taiwan's independence from China.
Xi reportedly told Biden, “Those who play with fire will get burned.” The White House said in a readout of the phone call, “The United States strongly opposes unilateral efforts to change the status quo or undermine peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” Politico reported.
