Harris avoids pledging troops to Taiwan defense

US Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris has declined to confirm if she would commit the US military to defending Taiwan from Beijing's forces in the event of a conflict, if she is elected in November.

”I’m not going to get into hypotheticals,” the candidate told Bill Whitaker of CBS when asked about the issue.

”We need to make sure that we maintain a ‘One China’ policy, but that includes supporting Taiwan’s ability to defend itself, including what we need to do to ensure the freedom of the Taiwan Strait,” she added, speaking on the program ‘60 Minutes’ which aired on Monday. Harris said the US “should not seek conflict,” and should also keep its business interests in mind.

The ‘One China’ principle states that there is only one national state for the Chinese people, which Beijing interprets as supporting its claim of sovereignty over the self-governed island. Taiwan was the last refuge of nationalist forces in the 1940s Chinese civil war and has remained a key US ally in the region in the decades since.

Washington switched its diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979, but maintains close ties to Taiwan, including by selling advanced weapon systems to the island and inviting its representatives to various international events.

China considers such actions as infringing on the One China principle and fostering conflict. Beijing’s stated goal is to seek peaceful reunification, but has said it would use force, should Taiwan try to declare independence.

The US considers its current relationship with China as a strategic rivalry, which is complicated by extensive trade between the two nations.

In her 2023 interview with ‘Face the Nation’ on CBS, Harris disagreed with President Joe Biden over his description of the Chinese economy as a “ticking time bomb.” The US policy “is not about decoupling, it is about de-risking,” she said.

”It is about ensuring that we are protecting American interests, and that we are a leader in terms of the rules of the road, as opposed to following others’ rules,” Harris added.

US media have accused Harris of being unforthcoming about how her China policy would differ from Biden’s, since she replaced him in July as the preferred Democratic candidate.

Biden is on the record as promising to use the US military against China in case of a hypothetical attack on Taiwan. Previous US leaders maintained “strategic ambiguity” in that regard – a policy designed to affect decisions in both Beijing and Taipei.