Joe Biden may have just landed his administration in a massive amount of trouble.

Biden is currently in Tokyo for a summit meeting between the members of the self-styled “Quad” countries – the United States, Japan, Australia, and India, as the major economies of the Asia-Pacific region – to discuss the Biden administration’s trade pact proposal, which is being called the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF).

Biden is going to be meeting one-on-one with the newly elected left-wing prime minister of Australia, Anthony Albanese, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, along with these “Quad” talks. Biden claimed during his press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida that there are eleven countries who would want to join in the IPEF.

The White House said the framework will help the United States and Asian economies work more closely on issues including supply chains, digital trade, clean energy, worker protections and anticorruption efforts. The details still need to be negotiated among the member countries, making it difficult for the administration to say how this agreement would fulfill the promise of helping U.S. workers and businesses while also meeting global needs.”

Countries signing on to the framework were to be announced Monday during Biden’s visit to Tokyo for talks with Kishida. It’s the latest step by the Biden administration to try to preserve and broaden U.S. influence in a region that until recently looked to be under the growing sway of China.”

But there is one country that was specifically NOT being invited to join in the new IPEF trade pact. That would be the world’s leading producer of semiconductors – Taiwan. And why would Taiwan NOT be invited to join in an Asian trade pact agreement?

Oh, I bet you know why.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan confirmed that Taiwan isn’t among the governments signed up for the launch of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, a trade pact that’s meant to allow the U.S. to work more closely with key Asian economies on issues including supply chains, digital trade, clean energy and anticorruption. The U.S. president is slated to highlight the launch of the framework as he meets with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Monday.”

Inclusion of the self-ruled island of Taiwan, which China claims as its own, would have irked Beijing.”

“We are looking to deepen our economic partnership with Taiwan including on high technology issues, including on semiconductor supply,” Sullivan said. “But we’re pursuing that in the first instance on a bilateral basis.”

So, because Team Biden is afraid of pissing off China, Taiwan – who is a necessary and important trade partner – is going to be excluded from this region-wide trade pact agreement. This sounds like a typical Team Biden idea. We want to “counter” China’s economic influence, but not make them angry? And of course, China is mad about the potential pact, even if Taiwan is not involved.

Beijing, in anticipation of the launch of the pact, has criticized the U.S. effort.”

“We hope they will build an open and inclusive circle of friends in Asia-Pacific, rather than an exclusive cliques, and do more for peace and development, rather than creating turmoil and chaos in the region,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said.”

China isn’t exactly in a solid economic position at the moment. Shanghai is still on lockdown (it’s been over 60 days since this started!), even as the government is now trying to restart the economy that they killed. It’s telling that Beijing has not gone into lockdown, even though they are also dealing with COVID outbreaks and putting restrictions on their population. For all their claims of “beating” COVID back in 2020, it seems that they are not having much success in 2022.

But maybe Taiwan doesn’t need to worry about what China thinks. At the press conference with Biden and Kishida, both leaders took questions from the media. When asked by CBS correspondent Nancy Cordes if the United States would “intervene” with the military if China decided to take over Taiwan by force, Biden simply said “yes.”

Q from @nancycordes: "Are you willing to get involved militarily to defend Taiwan, if it comes to that?"

A: "Yes," Biden said. "That's the commitment we made."

— Steven Portnoy (@stevenportnoy) May 23, 2022

“That’s the commitment we made.”

Pres. Biden says that the U.S. would intervene militarily if China were to invade Taiwan. https://t.co/VzSy4lai9o pic.twitter.com/tWvyxPAKep

— ABC News (@ABC) May 23, 2022

Well, THAT was an unexpected bombshell to toss in at the end of the presser. So much for the trade pact discussions. This is not the first time that Joe Biden has committed to defending Taiwan during a live question and answer session. When it happened last October, the White House had to “clarify” that the official policy had not changed. And here is Biden again, saying the exact same thing AGAIN, while also saying that he doesn’t think China would really invade because the whole international community would be totally mad at them, while also tossing out that “we agree with a One China Policy.” Did anyone tell Grandpa Joe what that “One China Policy” actually MEANS???

Um, I think China might be a little pissed off now, everyone. I also think that the White House comms shop just cracked open the hard stuff.

I asked a WH official how Biden’s statement at the press conf should be seen by China, especially after they expressed anger the State Department recently removed language saying the US does not support Taiwan independence, and Biden’s comment seemed a step further. Their answer: pic.twitter.com/3q5pFnl93c

— Jacqui Heinrich (@JacquiHeinrich) May 23, 2022

It’s getting harder to walk back and “clarify” what the Big Guy ackshually meant, when he keeps saying the same thing repeatedly. At some point, China is going to take him seriously.

Featured image: original Victory Girls art by Darleen Click