Biden says US would intervene if China tries to take Taiwan by force

TOKYO, Japan-US President Joe Biden said Monday that the United States would intervene militarily if Beijing “tries to take Taiwan by force” during a press conference in Tokyo.

“The United States has committed to supporting the ‘one China’ position, but that does not mean that China has the jurisdiction to use force to take Taiwan,” Biden said when asked about this possibility during a media appearance in the framework of his visit to Japan.

“Yes. We are committed to it,” the US president responded to the question of whether the United States would intervene militarily in a potential Chinese invasion of the island, which Beijing considers an “inalienable” part of its territory.

Biden asserted that China “is already flirting with low-flying danger and other maneuvers” around Taiwan, and compared a hypothetical invasion of the island to Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.

The sanctions applied by the international community to Russia “send a message about the cost of trying to take Taiwan by force,” something that “would result in long-term condemnation,” warned the White House president.

Biden addressed the situation in Taiwan with the Japanese Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida, during the summit held today in Tokyo, which was focused on closer cooperation in the face of the challenges presented by China or North Korea in the region.

Both promised that they will strengthen their collaboration in the face of “China’s increasingly coercive behavior” and North Korean weapons developments, which they described as a “challenge to their security.”

Tokyo and Washington consider that certain actions by Beijing “violate international law” and promised to “monitor its military actions” in the Asia-Pacific region, including its joint maneuvers with Russia.

Along the same lines, they stressed their opposition to “any attempt to change the ‘status quo by force in the East China Sea and the South China Sea,” Kishida said.

“The invasion of Ukraine has led us to reaffirm this commitment so that there is no such unilateral attempt in the region,” the Japanese prime minister said.

The Japanese leader also underlined the joint position that “the situation in Taiwan should not change”, pointed out that the allies defend “peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait”, and showed his “full confidence in a response from the United States ” in case of a conflict on the island.

The White House president also stressed the need to “guarantee freedom of navigation in the Pacific” and to increase “the deterrent capabilities” of the two allies.

In this sense, Kishida conveyed to Biden his desire to “increase the national defense capabilities and budget”, and to open the debate on expanding Japan’s military powers “to be able to attack enemy bases in a preventive manner”.