Matthew Kroenig

Inserted 1 year ago

“Some say it's a carefully coordinated campaign of ambiguity. Others say that Biden is senile and misspoke. I would argue that at this point the reason doesn't really matter. In the event of a war, it would always be up to the president to decide whether to intervene or not regardless of the formal policy. We now have a clear window on what Biden's decision would be. For years, US strategists argued the ambiguity was a good thing. It kept Beijing guessing but was not an explicit threat to intervene in what the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] would see as its internal affairs. As the US-China relationship has deteriorated, and the military balance in the Taiwan Strait shifted, many US strategists have called for the US to clarify its commitment.”

Aljazeera

Deputy director of the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security