IRMO Brief 06/2022, Maintaining the Taiwan Strait Status Quo Requires Washington Leadership

The era of American strategic ambiguity toward the defense of Taiwan has seemingly ended. Gaffe-prone U.S. President Joe Biden upended over 40 years of Washington’s carefully crafted diplomatic policy which has helped maintain a tense, yet mostly peaceful, status quo in the Taiwan Strait, when he stated in unambiguous
terms that he was committing America’s military to defending Taiwan if the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) forced reunification with the island. Despite the Biden Administration not yet sufficiently strengthening America’s ability to ensure a peaceful Taiwan Strait, the U.S. President has uttered a garbled version of his intentions to commit U.S. military to the defense of Taiwan not only once, but on three separate occasions. The American Enterprise Institute’s Hal Brands surmised, “once is a gaffe, three times is a policy.”

‍