Biden’s flip-flop on Taiwan makes America look weak

For the third time since taking office, President Joe Biden has declared that the United States will defend Taiwan if it is invaded by communist China. And for the third time, his staff has undermined him by insisting that Biden did not say what he plainly said. Which raises an important question: Who elected them?

Biden was asked: “You didn’t want to get involved in the Ukraine conflict militarily for obvious reasons. Are you willing to get involved militarily to defend Taiwan, if it comes to that?” Biden said yes and added, “The idea that (Taiwan) can be taken by force, just taken by force, is just not appropriate.”

He said the same thing last August, when he told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, “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.” And in October, after he was asked by CNN’s Anderson Cooper if the U.S. would come to Taiwan’s defense if China attacked, Biden answered yes.

Now that Biden has said three times that he would order the U.S. military to defend Taiwan, one begins to suspect that he actually meant what he said.

But instead of falling in line, his staff insisted there had been no change in policy. They appear to have persuaded Biden to back off as well. The next day he said that the U.S. policy of strategic ambiguity toward Taiwan has not changed. This makes no sense. He said he would defend Taiwan if it were attacked. There was nothing ambiguous about it.

Biden was right the first time — and the second and third times, too. One of the reasons Russian President Vladimir Putin chose to invade Ukraine but not, say, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia or Estonia, is because those countries enjoy a NATO Article 5 commitment. An attack on them would be declaring war on the United States and its allies — a powerful deterrent.

If we are to deter China from invading Taiwan, then we must be equally clear about the response it would face. Biden was right to ditch ambiguity for clarity — his backtracking notwithstanding. But clarity alone is not enough. We need to have the right capabilities in the region to back up our new deterrence posture. Whereas Ukraine has a long, porous border with Russia, Taiwan is an island. China needs to cross a strait to reach it. So we must deploy weapons — including intermediate-range conventional missiles, armed drones and anti-ship weapons in Guam, Japan and the Philippines — that would allow us to prevent China from doing so. We can do that thanks to President Donald Trump’s 2019 decision to withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. If Chinese leaders know we can stop their forces from ever reaching Taiwan, they will be less likely to launch an attack.

We also need to make sure Taiwan has the weapons to defend itself. The Trump administration approved historic defense sales to Taiwan, totaling over $18 billion in four years, including F-16 fighter jets, Abrams tanks, Stinger antiaircraft missiles, anti-ship missiles, torpedoes and Reaper drones. Biden needs to expand those sales even further.

Unlike what played out in Ukraine, we must arm Taiwan before an invasion to deter one. We need to ask ourselves: If China invaded tomorrow, what capabilities would we wish we had provided Taipei — and then provide those weapons now.

Most important, Biden’s staff needs to stop undermining deterrence by undermining the president. Biden was 100% correct: If China invades Taiwan, we must come to its defense. Better that China know that now, before an invasion — so we can prevent one from happening in the first place.