Thread by @TimInHonolulu

1. I saw a report by the @TheHill that tries to portray @JoeBiden's remarks about defending #Taiwan as a misstatement. When asked if it was a policy shift, @PressSec pointed to the Taiwan Relations Act. From its reaction, it's apparent staff at The Hill haven't read it.

2. The Act provides our relationship with #PRC is based on its commitment to address Taiwan peacefully. Moreover, the principal finding of policy is to maintain peace in the Western Pacific. We are close to war with China over its South Sea aggression. It's not just Taiwan.

3. And the Act states the policy was,

"to make clear that the United States decision to establish diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China rests upon the expectation that the future of Taiwan will be determined by peaceful means;

4. consider any effort to determine the future of Taiwan by other than peaceful means, including by boycotts or embargoes, a threat to the peace and security of the Western Pacific area and of grave concern to the United States; [and]

5. to maintain the capacity of the United States to resist any resort to force or other forms of coercion that would jeopardize the security, or the social or economic system, of the people on Taiwan."

6. Had @POTUS said anything but what he said, that would have been inconsistent with the Act.

China has changed. Mao and Zhou Enlai were anti-imperialist. Xi and the current Central Military Commission have blown off Mao to advance an imperial agenda because they lack the skill

7. work with their neighbors. Nixon gave Taiwan to China but it was not his to give. Carter passed the Taiwan Relations Act intended to address the mess left by Nixon and for 42 years it has served the purpose that it currently serves,

8. to make adventurers and reactionaries in the Chinese power elite know the cost of breaking Nixon's deal through aggression directed at the Western Pacific, including Taiwan.