"There has been no shift. The president was not announcing any change in our policy. Nor has he made a decision to change our policy," press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters on Friday, adding, "There's no change in our policy."
Biden had arrived before some observers to announce a change in the country's defense stance toward Taiwan during a CNN town hall on Thursday night, stirring confusion.
"Are you saying that the United States would come to Taiwan's defense if China attacked?" CNN's Anderson Cooper asked.
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Biden responded: "Yes. Yes, we have a commitment to do that."
Beijing has long sought to take Taiwan under its control but hasn't done so. The U.S. policy on Washington's response if China went to attack Taiwan is known as "strategic ambiguity."
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Biden's response prompted a rapid clarification by the White House Thursday evening, with one spokesperson telling the Washington Examiner that despite asserting that Washington would defend Taiwan from a Chinese attack, Biden "was not announcing any change in our policy and there is no change in our policy."
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"The U.S. defense relationship with Taiwan is guided by the Taiwan Relations Act," the official said. "We will uphold our commitment under the act, we will continue to support Taiwan's self-defense, and we will continue to oppose any unilateral changes to the status quo."
Biden has forced a similar explanation before, telling ABC News's George Stephanopoulos in August that the U.S. obligation to assist Taiwan was similar to its duties to NATO allies.
"We have made — kept every commitment. We made a sacred commitment to Article V that if, in fact, anyone were to invade or take action against our NATO allies, we would respond," Biden said. "Same with Japan, same with South Korea, same with Taiwan."
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Biden's latest comment sparked a comparison to a White House correction in 2001 after President George W. Bush said Washington would do "whatever it took" to come to Taiwan's defense, including pledging U.S. troops.
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Psaki repeatedly sought to correct the record Friday.
"Our defense relationship with Taiwan is guided by the Taiwan Relations Act. Some of the principles of the Taiwan Relations Act that the United States will continue to abide by, of course, assisting Taiwan in maintaining a sufficient self-defense capability and other principles that the United States would regard any efforts to determine the future of Taiwan by other threats to peace and security of the Western Pacific as a grave concern to the United States. I would also note that [Defense] Secretary Austin also spoke to this earlier today, and he said, 'Nobody wants to see the cross-strait issues come to blows, certainly not President Biden, and there's no reason that it should."
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