Yesterday, we looked at President Biden’s latest instance of publicly stating that American troops would fight to defend Taiwan in the event of an invasion of the island by China. This was at least the third or fourth time it’s happened and once again, White House spokespeople had to be rushed out to clarify that our policy hasn’t changed and what Biden really meant was the exact opposite of what he’d actually said. At that time, I posed what seemed to be the obvious question. Joe Biden is the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces and he issues the orders. He could do what he claimed without asking anyone’s permission. So what if the Chinese Communist Party starts taking him at his word and starts preparing for that eventuality? We didn’t need to wait long to find out. Within 24 hours of the “gaffe” airing on 60 Minutes, the Chinese Communist Party launched a formal complaint and put out a statement responding to Biden’s apparent threat of launching a war against them. (Yahoo News)
The Chinese foreign ministry said on Monday that China has lodged “stern representations” with the United States, after U.S. President Joe Biden said U.S. forces would defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion.
China reserves the right to take all necessary measures in response to activities that split the nation apart, said Mao Ning, spokesperson at the foreign ministry, at a regular media briefing.
“There is only one China in the world, Taiwan is part of China, and the government of the People’s Republic of China is the only legitimate government of China,” said Mao.
Check out this brief video report from the English-language version of The Straits Times to hear what the people of Taiwan and China are digesting during these events. Note how the China policy analyst specifically says, “the military option is definitely on the table.”
They are still talking about Nancy Pelosi’s recent visit over there even though it’s largely dropped out of the headlines here. It’s described as a “deliberate provocation” and the White House is, according to Beijing, using Taiwan as a tool to expand the isolation and containment of China. To say they’re not happy about it would be putting it mildly.
The analyst goes on to point out that this is the fourth time Joe Biden has made this threat. He notes that Biden was asked twice during the interview and he seemed to be speaking clearly and not slipping up. Beijing is taking him at his word and now believes that the United States policy of strategic ambiguity toward Taiwanese independence is “greatly eroded if not gone.”
But things were already tilting toward the chaotic in Beijing even before the 60 Minutes episode was aired. Last week, while drawing a bit less attention, China filed another formal complaint aimed at the United States Senate after one committee there advanced The Taiwan Policy Act of 2022. The bill would push considerably more money and defense capabilities to Taiwan and it has bipartisan support thus far. And the CCP leadership in Beijing was watching closely.
China’s Foreign Ministry accused the United States of violating its commitment to the “One China” principle and interfering in internal Chinese affairs Thursday, after the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations committee approved a new bill that could significantly increase American defense support for the island of Taiwan.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters in Beijing that China had “lodged serious complaints” with Washington over the legislation, which still needs U.S. House and President Joe Biden’s approval to become law.
“The one-China principle is the political foundation of China-U.S. relations,” she said. “If the bill continues to be deliberated, pushed forward or even signed into law, it will greatly shake the political foundation of China-U.S. relations and cause extremely serious consequences to China-U.S. relations and peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.”
Democratic Senator Bob Menendez teamed up with Republican Lindsey Graham to push the bill forward. Their attempt to explain how the bill was not intended to “seek war or increased tensions with Beijing” seemed to fall on deaf ears for good reason. Menendez said that all the United States is trying to do is “strategically lower the existential threats facing Taiwan by raising the cost of taking the island by force.”
I’m sorry, but how is that making things any better? You’re basically declaring that even if we don’t send troops and ships into the strait in response to any Chinese provocation, we’re building up all of the tools needed to fight a proxy war against China using American military technology. Do you suppose China doubts that we would engage in such a proxy war? Look no further than the proxy war we’re fighting in Ukraine against China’s friends in Russia.
If you were Xi Jinping or anyone in the highest ranks of the CCP, why would you doubt that America’s policy has changed? And even if Joe Biden was simply confused and didn’t know what he was saying every time he threatened to send our military in to fight the Chinese, they don’t believe that he was. They’re listening to what he’s saying and they are obviously taking him seriously. If this keeps up, Joe Biden will gaffe his way into world war three over the Taiwan Strait even if he manages to avoid it in Ukraine. We have too many other crises bubbling away on the stove right now to throw this situation onto the top of the pile.
