Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Conversations about US policy toward Taiwan often invoke “strategic ambiguity.” The promotion of this concept is quixotic, provocative, and dangerous. Strategic ambiguity has never been the official US position. What has kept the Taiwan Strait peaceful and stable for the past seven decades is not strategic ambiguity, but the exact opposite. When it comes to the use of force in defense of Taiwan, America’s position is consistent and unambiguous: strategic clarity.

The concept of strategic ambiguity refers to the supposed US position of not stating whether it will use force to defend Taiwan, if and when China invades the democratic nation. The policy’s purported purpose is to discourage such aggression, as well as any pretext for such aggression, namely the unilateral declaration of independence by Taiwan.

The US needs to maintain security and ensure the peaceful resolution of disputes in the Pacific region, as a cross-strait crisis would be “bad for the entire world,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday.

Blinken was asked in an interview on Canadian television channel TVA Montreal if Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has raised concerns in Washington about the risk of a Chinese attack on Taiwan.