Kevin Lamarque | Reuters President Joe Biden said Monday that he is “not concerned” about China’s military exercises around Taiwan, adding that while he is “concerned that they are moving as far as they are,” he doesn’t think he is going to keep ramping up the pressure. The remarks came a day after Beijing completed 72 hours of intense maneuvers and missile tests over and around Taiwan. The drills involved dozens of Chinese fighter jets and warships to simulate a military blockade of the self-governing island that Beijing considers a province. Biden’s relative calm reflected a deliberate American strategy not to respond to the Chinese war offensive with an equally red-hot rattle. It also reflects a broader view within the Biden administration that Beijing has no intention of making good on its tacit threat to invade Taiwan, at least not in the near term. Given this assessment, the United States has adopted an approach, for now, of heightened vigilance but steadfast refusal to be drawn into a military game of chicken in the Pacific. Last Thursday, the White House announced that Biden would keep the US aircraft carrier strike group in the South China Sea longer than originally planned in response to Beijing’s increased aggression towards Taiwan. At the same time, a Biden spokesman said the United States would postpone a previously planned intercontinental ballistic missile, or ICBM, test. The decisions signaled Washington’s desire to maintain US military vigilance in the region, while also denying Beijing the opportunity to point to a long-planned US missile test as evidence that America was responding to China’s missile launches near Taiwan with its own military preparations. Beijing claimed its military drills were conducted in retaliation for US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan last week. The visit by the California Democrat, which Biden has publicly championed but privately opposed, marked the first time in 25 years that a US House speaker, second in line to the presidency, had visited Taiwan. Asked Monday if it was wise for Pelosi to have traveled to Taiwan given the strained U.S.-China relationship, Biden gave the standard response his administration has been using for weeks. “That was her decision,” he said, before boarding Air Force One bound for Kentucky, where Biden and First Lady Jill Biden will visit communities affected by last week’s devastating flooding.
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