: As Rayelan suggested early in the spy plane debacle, Bush
: appears to be either attempting to turn the China/Taiwan
: issue into the Iraq of his administration--or planning for
: open warfare.

Thursday April 26 3:01 PM ET
Key Senate Democrat Blasts Bush Comments on Taiwan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A key Senate Democrat on Thursday blasted President Bush's forceful pledge to defend Taiwan, saying Bush had damaged U.S. credibility in Asia by forging a new policy without consulting U.S. allies or Congress.

Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, senior Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, said Bush's comments regarding Taiwan on Wednesday had ``damaged U.S. credibility with our allies and sewn confusion throughout the Pacific Rim.''

``What worries me is not just what the president said, but the utter disregard for the role of Congress and the vital interest of our key Pacific allies, particularly Japan,'' he said at a confirmation hearing for James Kelly, Bush's nominee to be assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs.

Using unusually blunt language, Bush said in an interview on ABC aired on Wednesday that the United States had an obligation to defend Taiwan, which is viewed by Beijing as a renegade province.

Asked if that meant use of the U.S. military, Bush said, ''Whatever it took to help Taiwan defend theirself.''

Bush later said the comments did not amount to a change in Taiwan policy. National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice said the statements were meant to show Bush took U.S. obligations under the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act seriously.

That act, developed by Congress after the United States normalized relations with Beijing and ended a defense treaty with Taipei, commits the United States to supplying defensive weapons for Taiwan but remains purposefully vague on whether American troops would go to war to defend it.

That policy of ``strategic ambiguity'' had been the guiding principle on Taiwan for both Republican and Democratic administrations for the last two decades, but Biden said Bush's comments clearly changed the policy.

``The point of that policy, which I support, was to retain the right to use force to defend Taiwan while reserving to the United States all the decision-making authority about the circumstances in which we might or might not commit U.S. forces,'' Biden said.

``I guess we have a new policy, and I am calling it the policy of ambiguous strategic ambiguity,'' he continued.

Kelly said he did not view Bush's comments as a change, noting Bush did not support Taiwan's independence and ``the important and unchanging element here is the U.S. support for peaceful resolution'' of the China-Taiwan issue.

Biden said Bush's comments put allies in the region such as Japan, which houses U.S. military bases that probably would be used to stage any military action over Taiwan, in an awkward
position.

``Words matter. Nuances matter,'' Biden said.

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