for The Hill

Twice in recent months President Biden has publicly affirmed a U.S. commitment to defend Taiwan should China attack. Both times, the White House walked his comments back, admitting that no such formal obligation exists.

While the media was quick to pounce on Biden’s “gaffes,” it’s likely that the Chinese received his message loud and clear: America has Taiwan’s back.

The United States has no mutual defense treaty with Taiwan, as we do with Japan and South Korea. On the contrary, since the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act, Washington has explicitly recognized the island as a part of China. Since then, “strategic ambiguity” has governed U.S. Taiwan policy: Washington won’t support the island’s independence so long as China refrains from seizing it by force.