'China flirting with danger': Joe Biden retorts over Taiwan invasion threats
"That's the commitment we made," he said when asked if the US would intervene militarily against a Chinese attempt to forcibly take control of Taiwan.
Warning China against "flirting with danger", US President Joe Biden said on Tuesday that his country would defend Taiwan militarily if Beijing invaded the self-ruled island.
"That's the commitment we made," he said at a news conference in Tokyo when asked if the US would intervene militarily against a Chinese attempt to forcibly take control of Taiwan. "We agreed with the One China policy, we signed on to it... but the idea that it can be taken by force is just not appropriate".
“We agree with the One-China policy, we signed onto it and all the attendant agreements made from there,” Biden added. “But the idea that it could be taken by force, just taken by force, is just not - it’s just not appropriate. It will dislocate the entire region and be another action similar to what happened in Ukraine.”
In perhaps his strongest comments to date, the US president directly linked the outcome of Western attempts to help Ukraine repel the Russian invasion with lessons likely to be learned in Beijing regarding Taiwan.
"It's important that Putin pay a price for his barbarism in Ukraine", news agency AFP quoted Biden as saying. "Russia has to pay a long-term price."
This is "not just about Ukraine", Biden said, because China is watching to see if Western pressure on Russia slacks off.
"What signal does that send to China about the cost of... attempting to take Taiwan by force?" he asked.
Biden said China does not have "jurisdiction to take Taiwan by force".
At the same time, Biden said that US policy toward Taiwan “has not changed at all.”
Bloomberg reported that a White House spokeswoman repeated that comment after Biden’s remarks, saying the president reiterated “our One China Policy” and “our commitment under the Taiwan Relations Act to provide Taiwan with the military means to defend itself.”
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Biden’s statement is likely to further anger China, which has warned the US repeatedly over its increased support for Taiwan.
“If the US side insists on playing the Taiwan card and goes further and further down the wrong road, it will certainly lead to a dangerous situation,” Yang Jiechi, Beijing’s top diplomat, said in a phone call with National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan recently.
(With inputs from agencies)