Just what is the Biden Administration’s China policy? After President Joe Biden said in Tokyo yesterday that the U.S. had made a commitment to the defense of Taiwan, both Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and State Department spokesman Ned Price said that there was no change in U.S. policy towards China. “As the president said, our One China policy has not changed,” Austin said during a press briefing yesterday. “He reiterated that policy and our commitment to peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. He also highlighted our commitment under the Taiwan Relations Act to help provide Taiwan the means to defend itself.”
When the reporter asked, “Is the U.S. making a commitment by saying that they are willing to defend them militarily, for U.S. troops to be involved in that military response?” Austin demurred, repeating that he thought that Biden was clear that U.S. policy hadn’t changed. When the reporter then asked Milley about the risks of a military defense of Taiwan, he refused to answer.
Ned Price, in his turn, accused China of misrepresenting U.S. policy. “The PRC continues to publicly misrepresent U.S. policy,” he said yesterday on twitter. “The United States does not subscribe to the PRC’s ‘one China principle’ – we remain committed to our longstanding, bipartisan one China policy, guided by the Taiwan Relations Act, Three Joint Communiques, and Six Assurances.”
At the Chinese Foreign Ministry, spokesman Wang Wenbin said that Price’s comments “misrepresent history and distort facts.” He reiterated Beijing’s view that there is only one China and that the government of the People’s Republic of China is the sole legal government representing the whole of China. “This is the core concept of the one-China principle and has become a consensus of the international community and basic norm governing international relations.” Wang presented a detailed chronology of events related to US-China relations going back to 1972 to make the point that without mutual agreement that there is only one China, there would be no US-China relations.
