Biden Promises to Keep ‘Commitment’ to Defend Taiwan in Case of Attack by China

U.S. President Joe Biden reiterated his country’s support for Taiwan, saying on Monday that his administration is willing to defend Taiwan with force if there is an attack by China’s communist party (CCP) on the mainland.

When a reporter asked whether Biden would be “willing to get involved militarily to defend Taiwan if it comes to that?” during the May 23 press conference in Tokyo, he replied with a flat “Yes.”

Biden then added, “It’s the commitment we made. Look, here’s the situation. We agree with a ‘One China’ policy, we’ve signed onto it, and all the intended agreements made from there. But the idea that [Taiwan] can be taken by force … is just not appropriate,” he said of the CCP’s threats to its neighboring self-governed island.

“It will dislocate the entire region, and be another action similar to what happened in Ukraine. And so it’s a burden that is even stronger.”

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who was also in attendance at the press conference, agreed.

“Any unilateral attempts to change the status quo by force—like Russia’s aggression against Ukraine—should never be tolerated in the Indo-Pacific, above all in east Asia,” he said in reference to China.