US slammed over Taiwan word games
Washington will pay heavy price if it follows wrong path, says Beijing
The United States’ policy of strategic ambiguity over Taiwan became an issue on May 24, as Beijing slammed Washington’s propensity to play with words following an apparent gaffe by US President Joe Biden.
During a summit news briefing with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Tokyo on May 23, the US leader vowed to defend Taiwan militarily, suggesting a change in the decades-old US policy of strategic ambiguity over the island.
However, the White House quickly rolled back Biden’s remark later that day, and Biden on May 24 contradicted himself by saying, “The policy has not changed at all. I stated that when I made my statement yesterday.”
It was the third time Biden made similar confusing comments on Taiwan and Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin accused Washington of “making every effort to play with words on its commitment to the oneChina principle”.
The spokesman said the US cannot stop the Chinese people from achieving complete national reunification with Taiwan, nor can it save “Taiwan independence” separatist forces from failure.
“For our friends, we have fine wine. Jackals or wolves we welcome with shotguns,” Wang said, quoting the final lines of a song written to eulogize China’s war with the US on the Korean Peninsula in the 1950s as a warning.
The Taiwan question has been the most sensitive issue in China-US relations, with Washington intentionally using the “Taiwan card” in recent years to contain China.
In an earlier move, the US State Department removed its wording about not supporting “Taiwan independence” and acknowledging Beijing’s position that Taiwan is a part of China from its website.
“That gives reason for the Chinese side to question the US’ credibility on its commitment to the one-China principle,” said Liu Qingbin, a senior researcher at the China Digital Economy Institute.
Liu said the reason the US has been fuzzy on whether it is willing to get involved militarily to defend Taiwan is twofold.
“It deters Beijing from taking the island province by force and it prevents authorities in Taiwan from seeking ‘independence’, which will provoke the Chinese mainland.” However, Biden’s repeated gaffes over the issue limited Washington’s deterrence effort as many believe that “a gaffe in politics is when a politician says what he or she really means”, Liu said.
Sourabh Gupta, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Institute for China-America Studies, described Biden’s remarks as a “two-step play”.
“Biden speaks off the cuff in a direct political manner understandable to laypersons that the US will defend Taiwan. And then the White House reins that comment in somewhat and restores the nuance to the US’ oneChina policy,” Gupta said.
It was not the first time that Biden had courted controversy during his first Asia trip. On May 21, he sent shock waves by committing to “nuclear deterrence” for the Republic of Korea. In a joint statement issued with Yoon Suk-yeol, president of the ROK, after their meeting, Biden reaffirmed that the US has extended a
deterrence commitment to the ROK “using the full range of US defense capabilities, including nuclear, convention and missile defense capabilities”.
“This is the first time that the joint statement stipulates the term ‘nuclear deterrence’,” said Lee Seong-Hyon, visiting scholar at Harvard University, noting that the inclusion of the term sends a clear message to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
Shawn Ho, an associate research fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, said he expects the DPRK to react very soon to the joint statement.