Biden says the U.S. will intervene in hostilities if China invades Taiwan

Tokyo – Biden says the U.S. will intervene in hostilities if China invades Taiwan

President Joe Biden said Monday that the U.S. will intervene militarily if China invades Taiwan, in one of the strongest and most open statements in support of Taiwan in decades.

Mr Biden said the burden of defending the self-governing island had since become “even stronger”. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Speaking at a joint news conference in Tokyo with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishido, Mr Biden said: “This is a commitment we have made.”

He said China’s efforts to use force against Taiwan would be “simply inappropriate”, adding that it would “move the whole region and become another action similar to what happened in Ukraine”.

Mr Biden also said Beijing was “flirting with danger” with recent military flights near Taiwan.

Under United China policy, the United States recognizes Beijing as China’s government and has no diplomatic relations with Taiwan. However, she maintains informal contacts with Taiwan, including the actual embassy in the capital Taipei. The United States also supplies military equipment to protect the island.

Mr Biden also said that Russia “had to pay a long-term price” for its “barbarism in Ukraine” in the form of sanctions against Moscow by the United States and its allies.

He said Russian President Vladimir Putin was trying to eliminate “Ukraine’s identity” because he “could not occupy it.”

The president said that if “sanctions do not continue in many respects, then what signal is this sending to China about the cost of trying to seize Taiwan by force?”

Asked whether a recession in the United States is imminent, Mr Biden said simply “No”, despite record high inflation and supply shortages, partly caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

He acknowledged that the U.S. economy has “problems,” but said it is better positioned than other countries.

“We have problems that the rest of the world has,” Biden said, “but they are less serious than the rest of the world.”

Mr Biden acknowledged that severe supply shortages and high energy prices are having an impact on American families. He said his administration was working to ease the pain for American consumers, but said immediate solutions were unlikely.

“It’s going to be a race,” Biden said. “It will take some time.”

On the other hand, he sought to allay concerns about recent cases of monkeypox that have been found in Europe and the United States, saying he sees no need to impose strict quarantine measures.

Speaking in Tokyo the day after he said the virus was something “something to worry about“I just don’t think it rises to the level of concern that existed with COVID-19.“

Smallpox is rarely found outside of Africa. But as of Friday, there were 80 confirmed cases worldwide, including at least two in the United States and another 50 suspects. One alleged case of monkeypox was investigated in Broward County, South Florida, on Sunday, which health officials said was related to international travel.

Although the disease belongs to the same family of viruses as smallpox, its symptoms are milder. Usually people recover within two to four weeks without the need for hospitalization, but the disease is sometimes fatal.

Mr Biden said the smallpox vaccine was working. Asked if the U.S. had enough supplies of the vaccine to deal with the spread of monkeypox, he said: “I think we have enough to deal with the likelihood of a problem.”