President Joe Biden is causing a headache in White House staff communications, according to some experts, after his latest comments that the United States is defending Taiwan if it is attacked by China.
The president said Monday that the United States had a “commitment” to defend Taiwan militarily – for the third time, he made remarks that seemed to signal a change in US policy of “strategic ambiguity”.
However, Biden also said that US policy has not changed. This policy meant that the United States did not publicly commit to defending Taiwan from Chinese attack, but did not say that the United States would not intervene.
China considers Taiwan part of its sovereign territory, while the United States pursues a One China policy that recognizes only one Chinese government, the Beijing-based government. The official name of Taiwan is the Republic of China.
Recent comments by US President Joe Biden on defending Taiwan in the United States have raised eyebrows. In this photo, Biden attended the summit of the four leaders on May 24, 2022 in Tokyo. Yuichi Yamazaki / Getty Images
This is not the first time Biden’s comments have been mixed. Twice ago, the White House tried to clarify the president’s statements on defending Taiwan, and on March 26, Biden raised his eyebrows when he said that Russian President Vladimir Putin “cannot stay in power.”
The White House said later that day that Biden “does not discuss Putin’s rule in Russia or regime change.”
Biden has been in national politics since he became a U.S. senator in 1973 and became well known for his “blunders.” Political scientists who spoke to Newsweek have suggested that Biden’s comments could cause problems for his communications team.
Biden’s cleaning crew
Thomas Gift, director-founder of the Center for US Policy at University College London, told Newsweek that the president’s blunders should keep his staff busy.
“Joe Biden’s cleaning team at the White House press office is certainly earning a salary these days,” Gift said. “His recent remarks about Taiwan are just the latest in a series of out-of-script comments that have led supporters to seek to rationalize his views on US official policy.
From Biden’s comments on the “minor invasion” of Ukraine, to proposing the need for regime change in Russia, to its latest removal from “strategic ambiguity” about Taiwan, Biden’s words make many observers wonder: is this just a blunder? are they? ”Gift said.
“Is Biden so out of the circle that he doesn’t even know the official position of the White House?” Or, more charitably, is there any major agenda that Biden insists on going out on the ledge and then getting his team to go back to his comments? ”He said.
Trump’s comments
Former President Donald Trump is well known for making conflicting statements, both on Twitter, but Biden’s comments could also have serious consequences.
Gift noted that Biden also “has a reputation for putting his foot in his mouth for a long time, but his latest remarks do not address trivial issues.”
“They have serious implications for foreign policy, with some of the important challenges facing America,” he said. “Democrats may want to downplay Biden’s comments or suggest – unconvincingly – that they are out of context. But if Trump made such mistakes, Democrats would criticize him for playing with the fire on the world stage.
Paul Quirk, a political scientist at the University of British Columbia in Canada, told Newsweek that Biden’s blunders “do not come close to President Trump’s frequent recklessness in both rhetoric and decisions,” but Biden’s latest remarks may still be cause for concern.
Destructive blunders
Quirk said Biden had been “notoriously” prone to blunders “since the national media paid attention to his remarks.”
“Observers wondered why, despite his generally good strategic judgment, he sometimes reacted immediately to issues that required careful consideration. Habit was probably a secondary factor in the failure of his 2008 presidential campaign,” Quirk said.
“His two recent blunders – calling for regime change in Russia and promising Taiwan’s military defense against China – are the most damaging in his career,” he continued.
Quirk said “there are often good reasons to maintain ambiguity about American intentions.”
“But the way to do it is with precisely calibrated ambiguous statements,” he said.
“Making bold statements and then returning them makes both the country’s enemies and its allies unsure of its competence,” Quirk added.
Walking on a tightrope
Mark Shanahan is an associate professor in the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Reading in the United Kingdom and co-editor of the Trump Presidency: From the Campaign Pathway to the World Stage. He took a different view of Biden’s latest blunders.
“Biden is an old man in foreign policy and he knows exactly what he’s doing,” Shanahan said.
“These are not blunders, nor is he introducing a new policy. The United States is running a very thin line when it comes to Taiwan, with every president since Truman wanting to support the island as a bastion of democracy in East Asia, while keeping crime against mainland China right to the right, “he said.
“In reinforcing the message to Beijing that any move to invade the island will not be tolerated, Biden used a technique much preferred by another older president: Dwight Eisenhower,” Shanahan said.
“When Ike wanted his position on an issue to remain intentionally opaque, he confused his words or said something that just didn’t sound very clear,” he added.
Republican attacks
However, Republican opponents of the president are likely to use any apparently confusing comments as lines of attack. Some Republicans have long questioned Biden’s cognitive abilities.
“The blunders play the role of Biden’s obscene image as senile from the conservative media and many Republican politicians,” Quirk told Newsweek.
“Biden, 79, has slowed down noticeably,” he said. “But it is not clear whether he is more prone to blunders than he has always been. Unfortunately, his communications staff and supporters cannot undo the damage by saying, “Do you think this is senile? Look what he said 20 years ago. “
Shanahan noted that Eisenhower’s political opponents “would cite his deteriorating health and declining abilities” when he was clearly wrong.
“Just like the Republican Party is doing with Biden now,” he said. “But Eisenhower was a far sharper instrument than was attributed to him at the time, and Biden is likely to do so. What better way to get the Chinese to guess than to say something and get your communications team back to it – and then say it again? “
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