US forces will defend Taiwan

With four weeks left of the twentieth congress of the CCP, the Communist Party of China, the event that will define Beijing's new foreign policy, US President Joe Biden returns to reiterate that US forces will defend Taiwan from a possible Chinese attack.

Asked by the CBS '60 Minutes' schedule whether US troops would defend Taiwan, Biden replied "yes" if it were "an unprecedented attack". 

It wasn't the first time Biden said US forces would be embroiled in a war between China and Taiwan, although the White House later retracted these claims.

The last time was in May, during a visit to Japan.

With this, no other American president has ever been so explicit in reminding Beijing of what risks it would face if he decided to attack Taipei, even if he took care to emphasize

that Washington's policy has remained unchanged.

Under a law passed by Congress, the United States is required to sell military supplies to Taiwan to ensure its self-defense against the far more numerous armed forces in Beijing.

But they have maintained what is officially called strategic ambiguity "about the possibility of militarily intervening. The policy is designed both to avert a Chinese invasion and to discourage Taiwan from provoking Beijing by formally declaring independence.

"Do not violate the sanctions against Moscow"

In the interview Biden then told of a phone call he had with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping at the beginning of the year, after Xi himself had met with the Russian President, Vladimir Putin during the Olympics: "Violating sanctions against Russia in the period in which Moscow started the war in Ukraine would have been a gigantic mistake ”.

Biden would have told Xi.

Biden explained that the phone call was not "to threaten" the Chinese president, but to warn of the repercussions of the sanctions violation. 

"So far there are no indications that they have supplied weapons or other things that Russia wanted," he added.

The US President then speaking of Putin again

insisted that what the Russian President did in Ukraine "is shameful with the attacks on hospitals and schools: it is outrageous".

Then, to curb the enthusiasm following the Kiev counter-offensive, he recalled that Ukraine is "defeating Russia, but has not yet won.

I haven't decided yet whether to reapply

In closing, Biden stated that he has not yet decided whether he will run for re-election in 2024.

"Have I already decided to reapply? This is yet to be seen", but he said that for now it is his "intention"

.

Joe Biden, the oldest president ever elected in the United States, will turn 80 on November 20.

He would be 82 at the start of a possible second term and 86 at the end.

Since his election in November 2020, the president has however repeatedly projected himself towards the 2024 elections, indicating that he would again choose his current vice president, Kamala Harris, as a running mate.