The White House has toned down its rhetoric on Taiwan a day after US President Joe Biden vowed to militarily support the island nation against Beijing, angering China.
“The president was not announcing any change in our policy and there is no change in our policy,” a White House spokesman told journalists on Friday, commenting on Biden’s earlier statements. The US president raised eyebrows on Thursday when he said Washington would support Taiwan if China attacked it.
Speaking at a CNN forum on Thursday, Biden claimed Washington had a “commitment” to defend Taipei under the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA), which governs relations between the two. The document, however, does not contain any actual mutual defense treaty. Read more…