US President Joe Biden stressed that US forces will defend Taiwan in the event of an "unprecedented" Chinese invasion, noting at the same time that he warned his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, of the damage to the investment climate if Beijing violated the sanctions imposed on Russia.
In an interview with the "60 Minutes" program on the American "CBS" network, Biden was asked whether the American forces would defend the autonomous island, which China considers its province?
"Yes," he said, "if in fact there was an unprecedented attack."
Asked to clarify if he meant that, unlike the situation in Ukraine, US forces "men and women" would defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion, Biden said, "Yes."
Speaking about the war in Ukraine, and about the repeated threats that Russian President Vladimir Putin might at some point use unconventional means such as small nuclear weapons or chemical weapons, Biden was asked what he would tell Putin if he was considering using such weapons, and he replied by saying "Don't do, don't, don't. This will change the face of war in a way not seen since World War II."
Biden said he had warned his Chinese counterpart that violating sanctions against Russia "would be a grave mistake", but stressed that there were no indications that Beijing had supplied Moscow with weapons for its "invasion of Ukraine."
And the US president announced during the interview that he had not yet decided whether he would run for a second presidential term in 2024, and said, "Is it a final decision that I will run again? It remains to be seen."