Opinion | Why Taiwan can feel at ease with Joe Biden as US president

Name: Washington’s US$1.8 billion arms sale to Taiwan is first weapons deal of its kind in over 40 years
Uploaded: 2020-12-15T18:30:12.000Z
Duration: 2 min 28 s
Description: Washington’s US$1.8 billion arms sale to Taiwan is first weapons deal of its kind in over 40 years

While Biden has historically not supported Taiwan’s independence, his voting record and statements on China, as well as his national security team, should reassure Taipei that the US will stand by the island

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Derek Grossman

Published: 2:30am, 16 Dec 2020Updated: 4:57am, 16 Dec 2020

It is an open secret that Taiwan is one of US President Donald Trump’s biggest fans. Under his administration, US-Taiwan relations have strengthened in virtually every respect, and even in the always sensitive domain of security cooperation.

That is why his loss to Joe Biden in the presidential election is causing thinly veiled heartburn in Taipei. But concerns that the incoming Biden administration might rethink Taiwan policy in favour of better relations with China are probably misguided, judging from Biden’s own pronouncements and the national security team he has assembled thus far.

Regarding Biden himself, it is important to remember that as a senator on the Foreign Relations Committee in 1979, he voted in favour of passing the Taiwan Relations Act, which, to this day, stands at the heart of US security cooperation with the island.

Fast forward to this spring, when Biden penned an important op-ed titled “Why America Must Lead Again”. Although Taiwan went unmentioned, Biden argued that “the United States does need to get tough with China” by “build[ing] a united front of US allies and partners to confront China’s abusive behaviours”.

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Washington’s US$1.8 billion arms sale to Taiwan is first weapons deal of its kind in over 40 years

Indeed, as I and others have recently argued, the Biden administration is very likely to keep the substance of the Trump administration’s Indo-Pacific strategy, which seeks to compete with and counter China by strengthening US alliances and partnerships. As a close partner of the United States, this should be encouraging news for Taiwan.

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