US President Joe Biden said on CBS that US troops would defend Taiwan if the island were to be invaded by China, a statement that should once again provoke the ire of Beijing.
Solicited, a spokesman for the White House however affirmed Sunday evening that the policy of the United States with regard to Taiwan "had not changed".
China considers Taiwan, with a population of some 23 million, to be one of its provinces, which it has yet to successfully reunite with the rest of its territory since the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949. In seven decades, the communist army was never able to conquer the island, which remained under the control of the Republic of China - the regime that once ruled mainland China and now rules only Taiwan.
One step forward, one step back
During his interview, the President of the United States also stressed that he was not "encouraging" the island to declare its formal independence.
"It's their decision," he said.
Joe Biden had already annoyed Beijing by saying at the end of May that the United States would intervene militarily to support Taiwan in the event of an invasion by Communist China.
He then went back, affirming his attachment to “strategic ambiguity”.
This deliberately vague concept, which has governed Washington's Taiwanese policy for decades, consists of the United States refraining from saying whether or not it would intervene militarily to defend Taiwan in the event of an invasion.
This has made it possible to maintain a certain stability in the region so far.
Washington also applies a “one China policy”: the United States officially recognizes only one Chinese government, that of Beijing.
Beijing-Washington relations at rock bottom
But, at the same time, they are careful not to endorse Beijing's position that Taiwan is an inalienable part of a single China that will one day be reunited.
The United States believes that it is up to Beijing and Taipei to find a solution, but opposes any use of force to change the status quo.
Joe Biden's remarks, however, come after a significant rapprochement between the United States and Taiwan, at a time when relations between Beijing and Washington are at their lowest in decades.
On Wednesday, a bill that provides for the first direct military aid from the United States to Taiwan passed a key stage in the American Congress.
A few days earlier, Washington had announced the sale for 1.1 billion dollars of weapons to Taipei.
In early August, a visit to Taiwan by Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi also angered Beijing.
China had then launched the most important military maneuvers in its history around the island.
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