US President Joe Biden speaks in an interview with the CBS program “60 Minutes” that aired on Sunday.
Photo: Screen grab from CBS “60 Minutes”

US military forces would defend Taiwan if there was “an unprecedented attack,” US President Joe Biden said, underscoring the US’ commitment to the nation as Chinese incursions mount near its shores.

Asked in a CBS 60 Minutes interview broadcast on Sunday whether US forces would defend Taiwan, Biden replied: “Yes, if in fact, there was an unprecedented attack.”

U.S. Senator Robert Menendez, a Democrat from New Jersey and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, speaks during a hearing in Washington, April 26, 2022.
Photo: Reuters

 

A bill described by its sponsors as “the most comprehensive restructuring of US policy toward Taiwan since the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979,” was expected to receive bipartisan support at a committee hearing yesterday, one of its initiators said on Tuesday.

“I think we will have a strong bipartisan vote tomorrow that we’re working on,” US Senator Bob Menendez said a day before the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which Menendez chairs, was to mark up the draft Taiwan policy act (TPA).

Global organizations representing Taiwanese communities overseas on Friday wrote a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres calling for Taiwan’s inclusion in the UN as a full member under that name.

The letter, which underscored Taiwan’s democratic form of government and contributions to the world during the COVID-19 pandemic, was cosigned by the US-based Formosan Association for Public Affairs (FAPA) and nine other groups in North America and Europe.