News/Commentary

John Kirby is ‘very, very clear’ that Biden does not support Taiwan’s independence

April 5, 2024 | | Print Article

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

“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?” a reporter asked.

“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.

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“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:

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Tom Tillison
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One thought on “John Kirby is ‘very, very clear’ that Biden does not support Taiwan’s independence”

  1. One of the problems in 2024 for Taiwan is it has purchased tens of millions of dollars of U.S. military equipment for self-defense and it has not been delivered and may not be for a number of years. China is very aware.
    At the end of the day America is not going to war over Taiwan. We would talk the talk but end up with sanctions that hold little water as we’re dependent on them for so many goods. The US navy is vulnerable in that region. Be overwhelmed by anti-ship missiles. Hundreds if not thousands would be launched at one time. The navy would have to stand-off thousands of miles. Might as well not even be in the game.

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