Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began in February, a debate within the U.S. foreign policy community has reignited over how far Washington would go to defend Taiwan if China launched a similar assault on the island. These questions acquired a new level of urgency last month when President Joe Biden seemed to suggest he would use military force to protect Taiwan if Beijing ever decided to attack it.
Although Biden administration officials quickly clarified the United States had not abandoned its historic policy of “strategic ambiguity” toward Taiwan’s defense, the president’s comments came only days before Secretary of State Antony Blinken gave a speech outlining Washington’s approach to China: Beijing is the greatest challenger to the American-led international order, and its global behavior must be constrained through shaping the “strategic environment” around it.
Despite U.S. officials insisting they don’t want a “new Cold War,” the Biden team is making a mistake in applying the Cold War-era U.S. strategy of containment as a means of managing its increasingly hostile relationship with China. Indeed, Washington already fought a cold war once with Beijing while engaging in superpower competition with Moscow — it was a catastrophe not only for American foreign policy but also for all of East Asia.
