Tokyo, May 23 (UNI) US President Biden has said that the US will get involved militarily to defend Taiwan if China tries to take it by force, issuing a stark warning to Beijing during his first trip to Asia as commander in chief, The New York Times reported on Monday.

“Yes. That’s the commitment we made,” Biden said on Monday in response to a question from a reporter about whether he was willing to get involved militarily if Taiwan came under threat.

Biden also stressed that the US remains committed to the bedrock “One China policy,” which recognizes the People’s Republic of China as the only legitimate government of China and acknowledges, but at the same time doesn’t endorse, Beijing’s claim that Taiwan is a part of China. But the president stressed that policy doesn’t give China the right to forcefully take over Taiwan.

Biden’s response in a way overturns the decades-old US policy of “strategic ambiguity” under which Washington does not make clear if it would defend Taiwan in the face of a military attack from China, which is designed to warn Taipei not to declare independence from China, which could spark a Chinese attack, while forcing the Chinese military to rethink taking action against Taiwan.

Biden, however, played down the possibility of China forcibly taking Taiwan.

“My expectation is that it will not happen,” Biden said, adding that it’s important for world leaders to send a strong message that there will be consequences if Beijing takes such action.

Biden's comments came as the US and Japan agreed to boost their security co-operation and deterrence capability, in the wake of what they called “China’s increasingly coercive behaviour” and a growing nuclear threat from North Korea.

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