US Would Defend Taiwan If It Came Under Attack By China, Says Biden

Joe Biden has said the US would intervene militarily to defend Taiwan if it came under attack from China, in an unusually forceful presidential statement in support of self-governing that drew a defiant response from Beijing.

- Justin McCurry, Vincent Ni

Speaking in Tokyo on the second day of his visit to Japan and against the backdrop of growing concern over Chinese military activity in the region, Biden said the US's responsibility to protect the self-ruled island - which China considers a renegade province - was "even stronger" after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

"That's the commitment we made," Biden said, after he told the Japanese prime minister, Fumio Kishida, that Washington backed Japan's permanent membership of a reformed UN security council and Tokyo's plans to beef up its security with record levels of defence spending, as it seeks to counter a nuclear-armed North Korea and an increasingly assertive China.

The US president said any attempt by China to use force against Taiwan would "just not be appropriate would dislocate the entire region and be another action similar to what happened in Ukraine".

In Beijing, the foreign ministry spokesperson, Wang Wenbin, said the Taiwan issue was "a purely internal affair for China". "On issues touching on China's core interests of sovereignty and territorial integrity, China has no room for compromise or concession," Wang said.