News analysis

US shift towards 'strategic clarity' would make for a more dangerous Taiwan Strait

The US Navy's Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Chancellorsville transiting the East China Sea in the Taiwan Strait last month. PHOTO: AFP
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BEIJING - In August 2021, President Joe Biden - while reassuring allies that the United States would come to their aid in the event of an attack - gave the first hint that the country could be dispensing with a decades-long policy on Taiwan.

Washington would respond if there was an attack on a member of the US-led North Atlantic Treaty Organisation military alliance in Europe, he told ABC News, adding that Washington would do the "same with Japan, same with South Korea, (and) same with Taiwan".

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