US president Joe Biden spoke during an interview on 60 Minutes, and said that the US will provide military support for Taiwan if China invades them.
However, he did say that the White House acknowledges the unchanged policy on Taiwan, and that thus far, the US has mainly supported Taiwan by selling military weapons to them.
He said that the US is still abiding by the One China policy, and that “we are not moving. We are not encouraging (Taiwan) to be independent, that’s (their) decision”.
However, he added that if there was an “unprecedented” attack on Taiwan by China, the US will step in and send troops to defend the former.
The US is able to provide weapons to Taiwan to defend itself under the Taiwan Relations Act, but the act doesn’t extend to sending US troops there.
A Chinese spokesperson from the China Embassy in the US, Liu Pengyu, tweeted on 3 September that US selling arms to Taiwan is “undermining China’s sovereignty and security interests”.
He said that China will take legitimate and necessary counter measures in light of the development of the situation, in response to the US planning to sell more weapons to Taiwan.