Taiwan is in the spotlight again. This time, it is due to the United States President Joe Biden’s response to a media query on Washington’s commitment towards Taiwan during his press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Tokyo. He said, “The United States will use force to defend Taiwan. That’s the commitment we made. We agree with the one-China policy. We’ve signed on to it and all the intended agreements were made from there. But the idea that it [Taiwan] can be taken by force, is just not, is just not appropriate.”
Expectedly, China responded by warning the United States against supporting Taiwan's independence. Wang Wenbin, a Chinese Ministry spokesperson, said, “On issues that bear on China’s sovereignty, territorial integrity and other core interests, no one shall expect China to make any compromise or trade-offs.”
However, this was not the first time Biden said that the United States will defend Taiwan if China tries to take Taiwan by force and change the status quo ante unilaterally. As a matter of fact, before his Tokyo comments, Biden has reiterated this twice in the past nine months. All three times, the State Department retracted Biden’s comments by clarifying that the US policy on Taiwan has not yet changed.