President Joe Biden stated unequivocally that the US would intervene militarily on behalf of Taiwan should China invade its territory. Biden was speaking in Tokyo at a conference with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

Noting that the US didn’t want to “get involved in the Ukraine conflict militarily for obvious reasons,” a reporter asked “are you willing to get involved militarily to defend Taiwan if it comes to that?”

“Yes,” Biden said almost wistfully.

“You are,” the reporter confirms.

“That’s the commitment we made,” Biden said. “That’s the commitment we made. We are not—look. Here’s the situation: we agree with the One China policy, we’ve signed onto it, and all of the attendant agreements made from there.