{"id":16128,"date":"2022-06-17T08:34:28","date_gmt":"2022-06-17T08:34:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/taiwan-the-codger-misspeaks-again-or-does-he"},"modified":"2022-06-17T09:38:11","modified_gmt":"2022-06-17T09:38:11","slug":"taiwan-the-codger-misspeaks-again-or-does-he","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/taiwan-the-codger-misspeaks-again-or-does-he","title":{"rendered":"Taiwan: The codger misspeaks again \u2013 or does he?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. <\/strong><\/span>Joe Biden did not actually promise to commit American forces to defend Taiwan against a Chinese invasion Well, my dear, we didn\u2019t know where to look. The old codger was getting away with it again, fielding the questions like a man only nine-tenths of his age, and then somebody asked him about Taiwan. He must have rehearsed that one, but still he blew it \u2013 big time. We\u2019ll be picking up the pieces for weeks. \u201d<\/p>\n

President Joe Biden was speaking at a Tokyo press conference, looking not a year older than 79, and somebody asked him if he were \u201cwilling to get involved militarily to defend Taiwan if it comes to that?\u201d Since the official US position on that question for many years has been \u2018constructive ambiguity\u2019, he was supposed to avoid both \u2018yes\u2019 and \u2018no\u2019.<\/p>\n

Biden has been playing the international game at the highest level for longer than most people have been alive, and he should know the drill. Say how much he loves Taiwan and how devoted he is to its democracy.<\/p>\n

He can even mention that he\u2019d be really disappointed and quite cross if China invaded it. But he mustn\u2019t say what the United States would actually do. Instead, with a loud clatter, the president of the United States jumped the tracks. \u201cYes\u201d, he said, \u201cthat\u2019s a commitment we made.<\/p>\n

The idea that (Taiwan) could be taken by force, just taken by force, is not\u2026it would dislocate the entire region and be another action similar to what happened in Ukraine.<\/p>\n

\u201d<\/p>\n

Compounding his crime, Biden went on to express the hope that China was paying attention to how the US and its allies have responded to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not just about Ukraine,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

China is watching to see if the Western response to the invasion stays strong, or if it loses focus as the war drags on. It must stay strong, because otherwise<\/p>\n

\u201cwhat signal does that send to China about the cost of\u2026attempting to take Taiwan by force?\u201d Quite a performance, and the headlines said things like \u2018US would defend Taiwan militarily if China attacked\u2019.<\/p>\n

But being an old codger has its advantages, and one is that people panic less when you make some apparently radical remark or commitment. They\u2019re in doubt as to whether you just misspoke, or whether you really meant it.<\/p>\n

Was Biden really sending a serious warning to China, but doing it in a way that did not compel China to respond directly? I suspect the answer is yes, because if you listen closely to what he said, he did NOT actually promise to commit American forces to defend Taiwan against a Chinese invasion.<\/p>\n

He meant it to sound as if he had said that \u2013 warning that China would be \u201cflirting with danger\u201d if it invaded Taiwan \u2013 but there was no such definitive statement.<\/p>\n

Maybe Joe Biden has just lost his marbles, but instilling a bit more doubt in the Chinese regime about his likely reaction in the event of a Chinese attack on Taiwan is not necessarily a blunder.<\/p>\n

\u2018Constructive ambiguity\u2019 requires both the \u2018yes\u2019 and the \u2018no\u2019 to be plausible, and the \u2018yes\u2019 has been losing credibility recently. In the much more fraught case of the US response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Biden has been notably cautious in his actions.<\/p>\n

Before the invasion had even begun, he made it publicly clear that American or NATO forces would not intervene directly to defend Ukraine. As the strength of the Ukrainian forces and the sheer incompetence of the Russian army became clear, his willingness to give Ukraine more advanced weapons in larger quantities grew.<\/p>\n

But his seemingly accidental asides about how Putin cannot remain in power never become actual policy. Every option remains open. This is a man who has been around the block a few times, and he knows how the game is played.<\/p>\n

So, if I were an adviser to Taiwan\u2019s president, I would tell her the most important thing in the event of a Chinese invasion attempt is to make a good show of resistance in the first few weeks.<\/p>\n

There is no more difficult military operation than an opposed amphibious landing, and China has no real-world experience of carrying out that kind of attack across 200 km of open ocean.<\/p>\n

So, if you can hold the invaders on the beaches for a week or two, American arms and supplies will start to flow in abundance. But don\u2019t expect US troops to help you directly. Biden is not willing for fight a war against China either. Consider Ukraine.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Lesotho<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. Joe Biden did not actually promise to commit American forces to defend Taiwan against a Chinese invasion Well, my dear, we didn\u2019t know where to look. The old codger was getting away with it again, fielding the questions like a man only nine-tenths of his age, and then somebody asked him about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":16127,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,9,16],"tags":[233,246,1921,245],"class_list":["post-16128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-miscellaneous","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-lesotho","tag-joe-biden","tag-lesotho"],"yoast_head":"\nTaiwan: The codger misspeaks again \u2013 or does he? - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Joe Biden did not actually promise to commit American forces to defend Taiwan against a Chinese invasion Well, my dear, ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/taiwan-the-codger-misspeaks-again-or-does-he\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Taiwan: The codger misspeaks again \u2013 or does he?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Joe Biden did not actually promise to commit American forces to defend Taiwan against a Chinese invasion Well, my dear, ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/taiwan-the-codger-misspeaks-again-or-does-he\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-06-17T08:34:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-06-17T09:38:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/06\/postQueueImg_23-62ac4b54c48ec.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"590\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"354\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/taiwan-the-codger-misspeaks-again-or-does-he#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/taiwan-the-codger-misspeaks-again-or-does-he\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Taiwan: The codger misspeaks again \u2013 or does he?\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-06-17T08:34:28+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-06-17T09:38:11+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/taiwan-the-codger-misspeaks-again-or-does-he\"},\"wordCount\":794,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/taiwan-the-codger-misspeaks-again-or-does-he#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/06\/postQueueImg_23-62ac4b54c48ec.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Lesotho\",\"Joe Biden\",\"Lesotho\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"miscellaneous\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/taiwan-the-codger-misspeaks-again-or-does-he#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/taiwan-the-codger-misspeaks-again-or-does-he\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/taiwan-the-codger-misspeaks-again-or-does-he\",\"name\":\"Taiwan: The codger misspeaks again \u2013 or does he? 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