The US won't come to Taiwan's aid should China attack the country for making a unilateral declaration of independence, US Senator Joseph Biden said on Monday.
Speaking to the National Press Club in Washington, Biden warned both sides of the Strait to refrain from "reckless action."
The US politician, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, visited Taiwan early last month and met with President Chen Shui-bian (
During that trip, Biden said the Taiwan Relations Act remained the key document governing America's commitments to Taiwan -- remarks widely seen as an attempt to counter a promise by US President George W. Bush that America would do "whatever it took" to defend the country.
Biden in his speech argued for the retention of what he called the "studied ambiguity'' of the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act, whereby the US would remain ambiguous on whether it would help Taiwan repel a Chinese attack.
That act, he said, told Taiwan "you are no longer an independent country. You are no longer an independent nation-state. We've agreed that you are going to be part of China and that you will work it out."
Biden also punctuated his comments with a clear warning: "So don't go declaring independence, because we are not willing to go to war over your unilateral declaration of independence."
President Chen has said there is no need to declare independence, as the country is already sovereign and the master of its own affairs.
Biden said the ambiguous wording of the Taiwan Relations Act leaves unanswered the question of whether the US would defend Taiwan, "so we don't encourage reckless action on either side."
"Depending on how each of the parties behaves," he said, "we reserve the right, as we do in every circumstance, to use American forces. ... It will depend upon the circumstances. That's how it's been for seven presidents. That's how it should remain."
The US senator also warned China, saying that the Taiwan Relations Act also lets Beijing know that "if the mainland attempts to [unify with Taiwan] by force and not dialogue, then the United States will provide the military means in terms of material to prevent that from happening."
Biden said that America's "one China" policy rests on cross-strait dialogue, "where the parties mutually arrive at how unification will take place."
Turning his attention to US military spending, Biden said US resources would be better spent helping Taiwan to improve its defenses rather pursuing a multi-billion-dollar national missile defense system.
The senator outlined a number of alternative ways money could be spent -- in particular drawing attention to the condition of plumbing systems at Taiwan's military installations.
"While we're at it, we may fix the plumbing in the barracks at Taipei, which I just visited ... they had to bring in water hoses from outside to allow the women and men in there to be able to shave, to be able to use the bathroom, let alone drink any water," he said.
Biden's comments -- the first since he visited Taiwan -- dealt mainly with his opposition to Bush's missile defense plan.
He warned that the defense shield could spark an arms race, with China, India, Pakistan and other countries boosting their nuclear missile capabilities in response.
SEPARATE: The MAC rebutted Beijing’s claim that Taiwan is China’s province, asserting that UN Resolution 2758 neither mentions Taiwan nor grants the PRC authority over it The “status quo” of democratic Taiwan and autocratic China not belonging to each other has long been recognized by the international community, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday in its rebuttal of Beijing’s claim that Taiwan can only be represented in the UN as “Taiwan, Province of China.” Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) yesterday at a news conference of the third session at the 14th National People’s Congress said that Taiwan can only be referred to as “Taiwan, Province of China” at the UN. Taiwan is an inseparable part of Chinese territory, which is not only history but
NATIONAL SECURITY: The Chinese influencer shared multiple videos on social media in which she claimed Taiwan is a part of China and supported its annexation Freedom of speech does not allow comments by Chinese residents in Taiwan that compromise national security or social stability, the nation’s top officials said yesterday, after the National Immigration Agency (NIA) revoked the residency permit of a Chinese influencer who published videos advocating China annexing Taiwan by force. Taiwan welcomes all foreigners to settle here and make families so long as they “love the land and people of Taiwan,” Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) told lawmakers during a plenary session at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei. The public power of the government must be asserted when necessary and the Ministry of
CROSSED A LINE: While entertainers working in China have made pro-China statements before, this time it seriously affected the nation’s security and interests, a source said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) late on Saturday night condemned the comments of Taiwanese entertainers who reposted Chinese statements denigrating Taiwan’s sovereignty. The nation’s cross-strait affairs authority issued the statement after several Taiwanese entertainers, including Patty Hou (侯佩岑), Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜) and Michelle Chen (陳妍希), on Friday and Saturday shared on their respective Sina Weibo (微博) accounts a post by state broadcaster China Central Television. The post showed an image of a map of Taiwan along with the five stars of the Chinese flag, and the message: “Taiwan is never a country. It never was and never will be.” The post followed remarks
Proposed amendments would forbid the use of all personal electronic devices during school hours in high schools and below, starting from the next school year in August, the Ministry of Education said on Monday. The Regulations on the Use of Mobile Devices at Educational Facilities up to High Schools (高級中等以下學校校園行動載具使用原則) state that mobile devices — defined as mobile phones, laptops, tablets, smartwatches or other wearables — should be turned off at school. The changes would stipulate that use of such devices during class is forbidden, and the devices should be handed to a teacher or the school for safekeeping. The amendments also say
RSS