The USA will defend it militarily Taiwan, "If Beijing invades the autonomous island," the U.S. president warned today from Tokyo Joe Biden, noting that China is “playing with fire.”.
«That is the commitment we have made,» the U.S. president noted when asked whether the U.S. would intervene militarily against a Chinese attempt to seize this territory by force.
«We agreed to the One-China policy; we signed it (…) but the idea that (Taiwan) could be taken by force is simply not appropriate,» he added.
«The Chinese are already »playing with fire' right now by flying so close (to Taiwan) and with all the maneuvers they're carrying out," he noted.
Japan and the U.S. «will monitor the recent activities of the Chinese navy, as well as movements related to joint exercises between China and Russia,» the Japanese prime minister said at the same time Fumio Kishida following his meeting with the U.S. president.
«We strongly oppose attempts to change the status quo by force in the East China Sea and the South China Sea,» Kishida noted during a joint press conference with Biden.
«In addition, we agreed to work together on various issues related to China, including human rights,» Kishida added.
Referring to Russia, the U.S. president also stated during the same press conference that Russia will have to pay a price in the long term for «its brutality in Ukraine» through sanctions imposed by the U.S. and its allies.
«This isn’t just about Ukraine,» he continued. «If sanctions were not maintained in many respects, what message would that send to China regarding the cost of attempting to seize Taiwan by force?» he wondered.
Noting that he expects an invasion of this kind «not to happen,» Biden noted, however, that this would depend «on how forcefully the world makes» China “understand” the price it would have to pay in the event of an invasion.
However, Biden also noted that he is considering the possibility of lifting tariff barriers on China, emphasizing that these were not imposed by his administration.
«We did not impose these tariff barriers,» he said when asked by reporters about the possibility of lifting them, adding that the matter is «under review.».
