Speech Stumbles, Biden's Confusing Cross-Strait Policy
By Sun Yang-ming
United Daily News, October 24, 2021
The remarks and posture from President Joe Biden down to important government officials in recent months highlighted that the United States has entered a state of chaos and no guiding principles in its current Taiwan or cross-strait policy. No one from U.S. allies to mainland China knows what direction the United States will bring to the two sides of the Taiwan Strait. Perhaps it will only be possible to find some clues until after the online summit between Mr. Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping later this year.
President Biden himself spoke about the Taiwan issue four times this year, and it was a mess; two of them were modified by White House officials, and once, no one knew what he was talking about.
In the dialogue earlier this year between President Biden and Mr. Xi on Chinese New Year’s Eve, Mr. Biden said that he would not openly oppose what Xi did in Hong Kong, Xinjiang and Taiwan. Mr. Xi also mentioned that he understood. However, in a press statement issued by the White House, Mr. Biden expressed concerns during the call over Hong Kong, Xinjiang and Taiwan issues.
Moreover, during an interview with ABC in August, President Biden included Taiwan in the status of a collective defense commitment and declared that if Beijing used force against Taiwan, the United States would definitely intervene. In this context, some believed that the United states has broken the long-held policy of "strategic ambiguity" in the Taiwan Strait. As a result, senior White House officials had to clarify.
In early October, President Biden uttered again, "I have spoken to Xi about Taiwan, and we agreed...we will abide by the Taiwan agreement." But no one knew what the agreement was. Within 24 hours of the "agreement" episode, Financial Times reported that the United States was preparing to agree to a name change of the Taipei Representative Office in Washington to the "Taiwan Representative Office." Soon after President Biden talked with Mr. Xi, did the United States mean to make such an arrangement? And let it be exposed by the press?
It didn't take long for President Biden to say something astonishing again; on October 21, he told CNN at a town hall meeting that the United States had a “commitment to do that,” when asked if the U.S. would defend Taiwan in the event of an attack by China. A White House official had no choice but to make corrections again, saying that "there is no change in our policy."
At the same time, Rick Waters, deputy assistant secretary at the Bureau of East Asia and Pacific Affairs, publicly stated that the PRC has misused Resolution 2758 to prevent Taiwan’s meaningful participation, in a gesture to express support for the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration and its efforts to promote Taiwan’s participation in the United Nations system.
No one knows, under such a staggering image, what is the policy direction that the United States would like to express? The Biden administration has become more and more like a one-term government. Beijing is now committed to maintaining stability and prioritizing a smooth transition to the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party next year. Apparently, it will deal with the Taiwan issue until after the 20th Party Congress; this, coupled with the “Four Insistences” made public by President Tsai Ing-wen in her National Day remarks, can only manifest that Taiwan’s future is worrying.