Biden warns Xi: US ready to defend Taiwan in case of Beijing aggression
US President Joe Biden, who usually uses moderate tones in foreign policy, made it clear during a debate in Baltimore that Washington would intervene directly in the event of a Chinese attack on Taiwan. He then went on to argue that the United States has a commitment to do so, since "they have made a sacred commitment to defend NATO allies not only in Canada and Europe, but also in Asia", citing Japan, South Korea and, for the 'in fact, Taiwan.
It might not seem like big news. However, it is a fact that, until now, America has never foreshadowed a direct military response should the Chinese leadership really decide to attack the island. Biden also added that he did not wish at all to worsen relations with Beijing.
Sources in the US administration were quick to declare that the president's words do not imply a change of course in US foreign policy which, after Nixon and Kissinger's visit to Beijing in 1972, officially recognized the existence of only one China .
It is evident that the increasingly bellicose tones adopted by Xi Jinping in recent times towards Taiwan, together with the presence of hundreds of Chinese warplanes over the skies of the island – which is officially called the "Republic of China" – have prompted the president to use harsher language.
This happens in conjunction with the signing of the Aukus pact between the US, Australia and the United Kingdom (in an anti-Chinese function), and with the Japanese rearmament projects. Even Tokyo, in fact, has hinted that it would not stand idle if Taiwan were attacked.
Thus the Indo-Pacific, and in particular the South China Sea, is increasingly becoming a great powder keg, in which even a minor accident could set off a large-scale conflict. And minor incidents have indeed occurred in abundance, as American and British warships continue to ply international waters around Taiwan (which the People's Republic, however, claims as its own).
Another and important sign of the growing tension between China and the US is on the diplomatic level. Biden has in fact decided to appoint the new US ambassador to Beijing, after a year of vacancy from the headquarters. The choice fell on 65-year-old Nicholas Burns, professor of international politics at Harvard University and former undersecretary for political affairs at the State Department during the presidency of George W. Bush.
During the Senate hearing for the due confirmation of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Burns was certainly not kind to China by using “hawkish” words. In fact, he cited the "genocide in Xinjiang" inhabited by Muslim Uyghurs, the continuous Chinese abuses in Tibet, the suffocation of Hong Kong's freedom and, last but not least , the "bullying against Taiwan". As if that weren't enough, he added that the People's Republic has attacked India on the Himalayan border and intimidated Vietnam, the Philippines and other nations bordering the South China Sea.
Certainly not bad for a newly appointed ambassador, which suggests how strained Sino-US relations are right now. It is to be expected that Burns will not have an easy time after his inauguration at the embassy. Obviously, Beijing reacted furiously, accusing the US of meddling in its internal affairs and of being the real culprits of any armed conflict.
In the background, the Chinese economic situation remains, which is much less brilliant than in the past. The real estate giant Evergrande is now close to collapse, which is why the definitive bursting of a real estate bubble cannot be ruled out at all. And a major energy crisis is also appearing at the very beginning of winter. Some analysts believe that Chinese aggression in foreign policy is linked to an attempt to divert public attention from domestic problems.
However, we cannot overlook the fact that Xi Jinping has strongly focused on the elimination of democratic and pro-Western China, and on the export of the communist model also to Taiwan, after having crushed – in violation of the treaties signed by Deng Xiaoping – any semblance of democracy. in Hong Kong. In this sense, Biden's move, despite all the doubts related to the weakness of the character, certainly appears to be right. It is a clear warning to Beijing, aimed at reminding that the US still has sufficient military strength to defend all allies from external aggression.
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This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Atlantico Quotidiano at the URL http://www.atlanticoquotidiano.it/quotidiano/biden-avverte-xi-usa-pronti-a-difendere-taiwan-in-caso-di-aggressione-di-pechino/ on Mon, 25 Oct 2021 03:54:00 +0000.