Joe Biden says US doesn't want cold war with China; unwilling to change views

The United States does not want a ‘cold war’ with China, US President Joe Biden said at a live broadcast event ‘CNN town hall’ in Baltimore on October 21, Thursday. When asked what will be the US’ response to the People’s Republic of China that just tested a hypersonic missile, and whether the USA can protect Taiwan, Biden responded by saying that he has “spoken and spent more time with Xi Jinping than any other world leader,” and was therefore not interested in starting a new cold war with China. 

“You know, you hear people saying, ‘Biden wants to start a new Cold War with China,’  I don’t want a Cold War with China.  I just want to make China understand that we are not going to step back.  We are not going to change any of our views,” said the US president.

Biden added, that militarily, China, Russia, have the “most powerful military in the history of the world,” but the US only has to worry “whether or not they’re going to engage in activities that will put them in a position where there they make a serious mistake.” 

When asked by Anderson Cooper if the United States would come to Taiwan’s defense if China attacked, President Joe Biden replied: “Yes,” adding “ we [US] have a commitment to do that.” 

Biden administration has been supportive of democratically-ruled Taiwan’s sovereignty and has been a leading supplier of defensive weaponry to the island. Thus far, the US has approved close to $5.1 billion in arms sales to the island which includes Lockheed Martin Corp’s High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS), AGM-84H Standoff Land Attack Missile Expanded Response (SLAM-ER) Missiles, related equipment made by Boeing, and six MS-110 Recce external sensor pods and at least a hundred Boeing manufactured Harpoon Coastal Defense Systems.

United States should provide “consistent arms sales” to Taiwan to deter Chinese aggression in the Pacific region, the head of US Indo-Pacific Command Adm. Philip Davidson had earlier stated at an event hosted by the American Enterprise Institute, stressing that America was 'fully involved' in providing military support to Taiwan to deter Chinese belligerence.

Experts have speculated that China might be getting close to successfully invading Taiwan as the PLA ramped up military activities around the region in recent months. Taiwan has reported about routine incursions by the People's Liberation Army (PLA) inside its Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) as tensions have escalated on both sides in recent years. 

[PLA Air Force J-20 fighter jets patrol in the East China Sea Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ). Image: Twitter/@louischeung_hk]

US national security adviser Robert O'Brien had warned at a presser that while he did not believe China was just yet ready to invade Taiwan, the island needed to "fortify itself," Taiwan meanwhile agreed, saying that it needed to "build credible combat capabilities and strengthen the development of asymmetric warfare".

US shifting from 'relentless wars' to diplomacy: Biden 

Earlier at the 76th UN General Assembly address, President of the United States, Joe Biden had similarly emphasised that he had “no intention of starting a new Cold War” with China after UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres stressed that the world could plunge into the “dangerous Cold War” if China and the United States didn’t repair their “completely dysfunctional” relationship.  Guterres asked the two countries to shun the volatile and challenging dynamics of hostility, and instead promote multilateralism to exercise international strategic security and stability.

Biden had then acknowledged UN's concerns in his maiden speech, saying that the US, under his administration, was shifting policy of 'relentless wars' and military intervention to "relentless diplomacy”. The United States is “not seeking a new Cold War or a world divided into rigid blocs,” Biden stressed, without mentioning the name of China. 

Image: AP