Taiwan’s Detractors often refer to comments tossed casually by heavyweights in Washington as proof of the US’ lack of trustworthiness.
US President Joe Biden, in response to a reporter’s query about Taiwan’s presidential elections and in an apparent attempt at pacifying Beijing, stated that he does not support Taiwan independence. This was interpreted as a sign of wavering from his previous, multiple statements that Washington would defend Taiwan if China attacked.
What has been intentionally overlooked is that traditionally, no US president would use US military forces to support freedom or democracy per se in a foreign land. Biden’s utterance did not deviate from that.