Moreover, geostrategically, the West must do whatever it takes to defend both Ukraine and Taiwan to prevent either Russia or China from successfully upending the international order. The time for word games and rhetorical posturing is over — Washington must end its policy of strategic ambiguity on defending Taiwan. The ambiguity was concisely articulated during the 1995-1996 Taiwan Strait Crisis when Chinese defense officials asked then-US president Bill Clinton’s assistant secretary of defense, Joseph Nye, what Washington would do if China attacked Taiwan. Xi must be made to understand that those presidential utterances were not top-of-the-head responses, but reflections of well-considered internal US policy. If strategic ambiguity is not finally ended, it would lead to major strategic miscalculation on China’s part — precisely the opposite of what Nye thought he was achieving with his opaque formulation.
