White House National Security Communications advisor John Kirby emphatically declared that the Biden Administration does not support Taiwan’s independence.
President Biden reportedly spoke over the phone with President Xi Jinping of China, who is also the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, and this prompted a question about Taiwan during Thursday’s White House press briefing
A reporter asked, “Xi reportedly told President Biden during your summit in San Francisco that Beijing plans to reunify Taiwan with mainland China. Did the Chinese leader bring up similar sentiments in the call the other day, and if so, what is President Biden’s response?”
KIRBY: “We don’t support independence for Taiwan.” pic.twitter.com/pLPtp8hKix
— Republican National Committee Research (@Republican National CommitteeResearch) April 4, 2024
“Certainly Taiwan came up in the context of the call,” Kirby replied. “There’s not a single discussion that we don’t have with senior leaders in the PRC where we don’t talk about Taiwan. Of course it came up.”
“I won’t characterize President Xi’ s comments, but I can tell you that President Biden was very, very clear that nothing has changed about our One China Policy,” he added. “We don’t support independence for Taiwan, but we also don’t want to see the status quo changed in a unilateral way, and certainly not by force.”
The U.S. State Department website describes Taiwan as “a key U.S. partner in the Indo-Pacific.”
“Though the United States does not have diplomatic relations with Taiwan, we have a robust unofficial relationship,” a statement reads. “The United States and Taiwan share similar values, deep commercial and economic links, and strong people-to-people ties, which form the bedrock of our friendship and serve as the impetus for expanding U.S. engagement with Taiwan.”
The statement also acknowledges the One China Policy, which was first stated in the Shanghai Communiqué of 1972.
“The United States approach to Taiwan has remained consistent across decades and administrations. The United States has a longstanding one China policy, which is guided by the Taiwan Relations Act, the three U.S.-China Joint Communiques, and the Six Assurances. We oppose any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side; we do not support Taiwan independence; and we expect cross-Strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means,” the agency said.
“We continue to have an abiding interest in peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. Consistent with the Taiwan Relations Act, the United States makes available defense articles and services as necessary to enable Taiwan to maintain a sufficient self-defense capability -– and maintains our capacity to resist any resort to force or other forms of coercion that would jeopardize the security, or the social or economic system, of Taiwan.”
Biden angered China in 2022 over his response to a question asked during a 60 Minutes interview about whether U.S. forces would defend the democratically governed island claimed by China.
“Yes, if in fact, there was an unprecedented attack,” the president said, which sent the White House scrambling to declare that U.S. policy towards Taiwan had not changed.
Here’s a sampling of responses from skeptical social media users, as seen on X:
Are you surprised? pic.twitter.com/ZYrK955eYX
— Pismo (@Pismo_B) April 4, 2024
I remember when the USA supported freedom & independence for all. Our government no longer even supports freedom & independence for American citizens. You expect them to support Taiwan? Only use “freedom” as an excuse to send money to Ukraine for money laundering purposes.
The DC…— KnowsTooMuch (@Knows_Too_Much) April 4, 2024
China owns Biden, and Taiwan will get screwed.
— George Leca (@g_leca) April 4, 2024
Biden just gave a green light to President Xi to invade Taiwan!
— Pismo (@Pismo_B) April 4, 2024
We don’t support independence for Taiwan but we certainly support ANYTHING Ukraine wants. Why on both?
— TheAuMan (@TheAuMan1) April 4, 2024
Sorry Taiwan, freedom is exclusively for the countries that have oil or allow the US to launder money through
Hope your absorption is a peaceful one, unfortunately no one can set their profile picture to your flag, due to China disagreeing with that move
— Pat the Irishman (@Dad2Earthlings) April 4, 2024
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Author: Tom Tillison
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