At a joint news conference with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on May 23, U.S. President Joe Biden claimed the United States would defend Taiwan against military action from China, though an aide to the president later added that U.S. policy toward Taiwan had not changed. Taiwan is a cornerstone political and security issue for China, as Beijing has long wielded reunification with Taiwan as a pillar of political legitimacy and occupying Taiwan would break up the United States' military ring-fence around China's claimed maritime domain. Washington, for its part, sees Taiwan as a critical supplier of advanced semiconductors, a bastion of democracy in the Pacific and a barrier to China's eastward expansion of maritime power. Taiwan is also a strategic partner that supports U.S. freedom of navigation operations in the Taiwan Strait and East and South China seas, which partly serve to defend Western sea lanes in the Indo-Pacific region.
