President Joe Biden said Monday that the US would intervene militarily if China were to invade Taiwan, declaring the commitment to protect the island is "even stronger" after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. It was one of the most forceful presidential statements in support of Taiwan's self-governing in decades.
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Biden, at a news conference in Tokyo, said "yes" when asked if he was willing to get involved militarily to defend Taiwan if China invaded. "That's the commitment we made," he added.
The US traditionally has avoided making such an explicit security guarantee to Taiwan, with which it no longer has a mutual defense treaty, instead maintaining a policy of "strategic ambiguity" about how far it would be willing to go. The 1979 Taiwan Relations Act, which has governed US relations with the island, does not require the US to step in militarily if China invades, but makes it American policy to ensure Taiwan has the resources to defend itself and to prevent any unilateral change of status by Beijing.
A White House official said Biden's comments did not reflect a policy shift for the United States, a point echoed more firmly by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, asked by reporters if Biden's answer indicated the US would do more to help Taiwan than it has done to help Ukraine and whether the US was making a commitment to send troops to help Taiwan in the event of an invasion.
