A RIGHT WING ISOLATIONIST AND CHINA AGREE
How Biden Has Committed US to War Over Taiwan
Friday, 23 September 2022
If China invades Taiwan to unify it with the mainland, the United States will go to war to defend Taiwan and send U.S. troops to fight the invaders.
That is the commitment made last week by President Joe Biden.
Asked by CBS's Scott Pelley on "60 Minutes" if the U.S. would fight in defense of Taiwan if China invaded, Biden replied, "Yes, if, in fact, there was an unprecedented attack."
Pelley followed up: "So, unlike Ukraine, to be clear, sir, U.S. forces — U.S. men and women — would defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion."
"Yes," Biden responded.
As Aaron Blake of The Washington Post reports, this is "a U.S. president firmly committing to go to war." Moreover, it is only the "latest of increasingly hawkish comments" made by Biden on the China-Taiwan issue.
For the fourth time in his presidency, Biden has said the U.S. will fight for Taiwan, though that could mean all-out war with China, which claims Taiwan as its sovereign territory and which has a growing stockpile of strategic missiles and nuclear weapons to validate its claim.
In August 2021, as Blake relates, Biden declared, "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."
But Taiwan has no mutual security treaty with the United States, nor any Article 5 war guarantee that obligates us to defend the island. The U.S.-Taiwan security pact of the 1950s was abrogated in 1979, when Jimmy Carter recognized Beijing as the legitimate government of China.
In October 2021, Biden was again asked: "China just tested a hypersonic missile. What will you do to keep up with them militarily, and can you vow to protect Taiwan?"
Biden's response: "Yes and yes."
In a follow-up, Biden was asked again, "So are you saying that the United States would come to Taiwan's defense if China attacked?"
Biden: "Yes, yes, we have a commitment to do that."
Yet we have no such commitment, no such obligation, though Biden appeared to be establishing one as head of government, head of state and commander in chief.
In May, Biden was asked, "Are you willing to get involved militarily to defend Taiwan if it comes to that?"
Biden: "Yes."
Q: "You are?"
Biden: "That's the commitment we made."
Thus, Biden has, four times in his 20-month presidency, declared the U.S. is obligated to come to the defense of Taiwan, if China attacks, blockades or invades; and that, as president, he will honor what he believes to be a national commitment and U.S. war guarantee.
Each of the times Biden has declared that we are obligated to fight for Taiwan and he will honor that obligation, White House staff have walked back his words. There is no change in U.S. policy, unnamed officials assure the press.
U.S. policy is still presumably "strategic ambiguity" as to what we will do should China attack.
Nor is Taiwan the only site in the seas off the China coast where Biden seems to have issued a unilateral U.S. war guarantee.
Biden has said that if the Philippines seeks to retrieve its islets in the South China Sea now occupied by China, America will fight on Manila's side. He has indicated that the U.S. mutual security treaty with Japan covers the Senkaku Islands Japan occupies but China claims.
One wonders: If China invades and seizes Taiwanese-claimed and -occupied islands within sight of the Chinese coast, and Taiwan resists, what would Biden do?
In the Nixon-Kennedy campaign of 1960, JFK called it "unwise" to take a risk of being dragged into war, which could lead to a world war, over islands like Quemoy and Matsu that were not strategically defensible.
If Beijing invaded and occupied islands a few miles right off its coast, and Taiwan resisted, would Biden send the Seventh Fleet to war with China?
The basic question raised by these Biden commitments to go to war with a China with a huge army and fleet, and in its own home region, is — why?
No U.S. president after Richard Nixon has challenged China's claim that there is but "one China" and Taiwan "is a part of China."
How many battle deaths, how many war dead, are we willing to sacrifice to prevent Beijing taking political control of an island of 23 million Taiwanese 6,000 miles away from the United States?
We did not fight to prevent China from imposing its control on 7 million people of Hong Kong. Why then does the independence of 23 million Taiwanese justify a U.S. war with the world's most populous nation?
And if we fought a war with China over Taiwan, what would be our long-term strategic goal?
Independence for Taiwan?
But did we not cede that in the 1970s with Nixon's trip to China, his Shanghai Communique and Carter's severing of relations with the Republic of China?
Patrick J. Buchanan is the author of "Nixon's White House Wars: The Battles That Made and Broke a President and Divided America Forever."
Reuters
September 23, 2022
China has accused the United States of sending "very wrong, dangerous signals" on Taiwan after the U.S. secretary of state told his Chinese counterpart on Friday that the maintenance of peace and stability over Taiwan was vitally important.
Taiwan was the focus of the 90-minute, "direct and honest" talks between Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the margins of the U.N. General Assembly in New York, a U.S official told reporters.
"For our part, the secretary made crystal clear that, in accordance with our long-standing one-China policy, which again has not changed, the maintenance of peace and stability across the Strait is absolutely, vitally important," the senior U.S. administration official said.
China's foreign ministry, in a statement on the meeting, said the United States was sending "very wrong, dangerous signals" on Taiwan, and the more rampant Taiwan's independence activity, the less likely there would be a peaceful settlement.
"The Taiwan issue is an internal Chinese matter, and the United States has no right to interfere in what method will be used to resolve it," the ministry cited Wang as saying.
Tensions over Taiwan have soared after a visit there in August by U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi - which was followed by large-scale Chinese military drills - as well as a pledge by U.S. President Joe Biden to defend the democratically governed island.
Biden's statement was his most explicit to date about committing U.S. troops to the defend the island. It was also the latest instance of his appearing to go beyond a long-standing U.S. policy of "strategic ambiguity," which does not make it clear whether the United States would respond militarily to an attack on Taiwan.
The White House has insisted its Taiwan policy has not changed, but China said Biden's remarks sent the wrong signal to those seeking an independent Taiwan.
In a phone call with Biden in July, Chinese leader Xi Jinping warned about Taiwan, saying "those who play with fire will perish by it."
The State Department had said earlier that Blinken's meeting with Wang was part of a U.S. effort to "maintain open lines of communication and manage competition responsibly," and the senior official said Blinken had reiterated U.S. openness to "cooperating with China on matters of global concern."
Blinken also "highlighted the implications" if China were to provide material support to Russia's invasion of Ukraine or engage in wholesale sanctions evasion, the official added.
U.S. officials have in the past said they had seen no evidence of China providing such support.
Blinken "underscored that the United States and China and the international community have an obligation to work to counter the effects of that invasion and also to deter Russia from taking further provocative actions," the official said.
China sees Taiwan as one of its provinces. Beijing has long vowed to bring Taiwan under its control and has not ruled out the use of force to do so.
Taiwan's government strongly objects to China's sovereignty claims and says only the island's 23 million people can decide its future.
'DEVASTATE OUR BILATERAL TIES'
Blinken's meeting with Wang was preceded by one between the foreign ministers of the Quad grouping of Australia, India, Japan and the United States, which issued a statement, referring to the Indo-Pacific, saying that "we strongly oppose any unilateral actions that seek to change the status quo or increase tensions in the region."
Since Pelosi's visit "China has taken a number of provocative steps that have by design acted to change the status quo", the U.S. official said.
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris will discuss Taiwan security during bilateral meetings with the leaders of U.S. allies Japan and South Korea when she visits them next week, another U.S. official said.
Daniel Russel, the top U.S. diplomat for Asia under President Barack Obama, said the fact Blinken and Wang had met was important after the turbulence brought by Pelosi's visit, and hopefully some progress would have been made towards arranging a meeting between Xi and Biden on the sidelines of a G-20 meeting in November, which would be their first in-person as leaders.
"Wang and Blinken's decision to meet in New York does not guarantee the November summit will go smoothly or that it will even occur. But had they been unable to meet, it would have meant the prospects for a summit in November were poor," said Russel, now with the Asia Society.
In a speech to the Asia Society in New York on Thursday, Wang said the Taiwan question was growing into the biggest risk in China-U.S. relations.
"Should it be mishandled, it is most likely to devastate our bilateral ties," Wang said, according to a transcript from the Chinese embassy.
Likewise, the decades-old U.S. law outlining Washington's unofficial relations with Taiwan – which Beijing considers null – makes clear that Washington's decision to establish diplomatic relations with China in 1979 "rests upon the expectation that the future of Taiwan will be determined by peaceful means."
(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk, David Brunnstrom, Michael Martina and Simon Lewis; Additionl reporting by Ben Blanchard in Taipei; Editing by Mary Milliken, Jonathan Oatis and Sandra Maler)
US, China top diplomats meet to contain
Shaun Tandon and Nicolas Revise
AFP
Published September 23, 2022
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken walks with Chinese Foreign Minister
The top US and Chinese diplomats met Friday in New York as soaring tensions show signs of easing, but Beijing issued a new warning against support for Taiwan.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi shook hands but only exchanged pleasantries before the cameras before sitting down with aides on the sidelines of the annual United Nations summit.
It was their first encounter since extensive talks in July in Bali where both sides appeared optimistic for more stability.
One month later, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan, infuriating Beijing which staged exercises seen as a trial run for an invasion of the self-governing democracy.
In a sign of smoother ties, Wang also met in New York with US climate envoy John Kerry despite China’s announcement after Pelosi’s visit that it was curbing cooperation on the issue, a key priority for Biden.
Blinken went ahead with the talks despite paring down his schedule following the death of his father on Thursday. Immediately before seeing Wang, he met with his counterparts from Australia, Japan and India, the so-called “Quad” which Beijing has denounced as an attempt to isolate it.
“Our four countries know very well the significant challenges that we face, as well as the opportunities that are before us, demand more than ever that we work together,” Blinken said as the ministers signed an agreement on cooperation in disaster relief.
– Taiwan the ‘biggest risk’ –
President Joe Biden in an interview aired Sunday said he was ready to intervene militarily if China uses force in Taiwan, once again deviating from decades of US ambiguity.
In a speech before his talks with Blinken, Wang reiterated anger over US support for Taiwan, which China considers part of its territory.
“The Taiwan question is growing into the biggest risk in China-US relations. Should it be mishandled it is most likely to devastate bilateral ties,” he said at the Asia Society think tank.
“Just as the US will not allow Hawaii to be stripped away, China has the right to uphold the unification of the country,” he said.
He denounced the US decision to “allow” the Taiwan visit by Pelosi, who is second in line to the presidency after the vice president. The Biden administration, while privately concerned about her trip, noted that Congress is a separate branch of government.
But Wang was conciliatory toward Biden. The New York talks are expected to lay the groundwork for a first meeting between Biden and President Xi Jinping since they became their two countries’ leaders, likely in Bali in November on the sidelines of a summit of the Group of 20 economic powers.
Wang said that both Biden and Xi seek to “make the China-US relationship work” and to “steer clear of conflict and confrontation.”
The US Congress is a stronghold of support for Taiwan, a vibrant democracy and major technological power.
Last week a Senate committee took a first step to providing billions of dollars in weapons directly to Taiwan to deter China, a ramp-up from decades of only selling weapons requested by Taipei.
Tensions have also risen over human rights with the United States accusing the communist state of carrying out genocide against the mostly Muslim Uyghur people.
Biden, like his predecessor Donald Trump, has viewed a rising China as the chief global competitor to the United States and vowed to reorient US foreign policy around the challenge.
Russia’s invasion in February of Ukraine quickly diverted the US focus to Europe but also heightened fears that Beijing could make good on years of threats to use force against Taiwan.
Yet US officials have also been heartened that China has shown some distance from Russia, nominally its close ally.
Wang met in New York with Ukraine’s foreign minister for the first time since the war and in a Security Council session Thursday emphasized the need for a ceasefire rather than support for Russia.
Read more: https://www.digitaljournal.com/world/us-china-top-diplomats-meet-to-contain-high-tensions-on-taiwan/article#ixzz7fm5yaMQX
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