At a White House briefing on August 12, Kurt Campbell, Deputy Assistant to the President
and Coordinator for the Indo-Pacific, said that the PRC had used the visit of a U.S. Speaker of
the House — a visit that is consistent with US' One China policy and is not unprecedented —
as a pretext to launch an intensified pressure campaign against Taiwan and to try to change the
status quo, jeopardizing peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and in the broader region.
He accused China of overreacting and said "its actions continue to be provocative, destabilizing,
and unprecedented. China launched missiles into the waters around Taiwan. It declared
exclusion zones around Taiwan that disrupted civilian, air, and maritime traffic. It has sought
to disregard the centreline between the PRC and Taiwan, which has been respected by both
sides for more than 60 years as a stabilizing feature, with historic numbers of military crossings
over the last week. It surrounded Taiwan with more than a dozen warships; even today, several
warships remain around Taiwan. And it has imposed sanctions on Speaker Pelosi and her
family, and taken coercive economic measures against Taiwan". He described the US response
as "responsible, steady, and resolute" adding that "We demonstrated that we will not be
deterred and made clear to the world what the PRC was doing. President Reagan [Biden]
directed the USS Ronald Reagan to stay on station as the PRC continued its provocative
activities. We continue to support Taiwan and our partners, many of which — the G7, Australia, the UK, the EU, and ASEAN — have also expressed concern in public
statements. And we’ve reinforced our ironclad alliances, as we did on August 9th with the
joint air force exercise with Japan near Okinawa". Stressing that the US is opposed to "any
unilateral changes to the status quo from either side, and we do not support Taiwan
independence, and we expect cross-Strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means", he
assessed that China’s actions "are part of an intensified pressure campaign against Taiwan,
which has not ended, and we expect it to continue to unfold in the coming weeks and
months. The goal of this campaign is clear: to intimidate and coerce Taiwan and undermine
its resilience". He promised "We will continue to take calm and resolute steps to uphold peace
and stability in the face of Beijing’s ongoing efforts to undermine it, and to support Taiwan in
line with our longstanding policy. These steps, across a range of areas, will unfold over the
coming weeks and months because the challenge is long term. We will not be reflexive or
knee-jerk; we will be patient and effective". Declaring that "We’ll continue to fly, sail, and
operate where international law allows, consistent with our longstanding commitment to
freedom of navigation, and that includes conducting standard air and maritime transits through
the Taiwan Strait in the next few weeks", he stated "we will ensure that our presence, posture,
and exercises account for China’s more provocative and destabilizing behaviour, with a view
towards guiding the situation in the Western Pacific towards greater stability. There’s more to
come in these areas and others in the days and weeks ahead" At the same time, he said, the US
has "and will continue to keep the lines of communication open with Beijing, and we call on
Beijing to reopen those channels it has closed — not for our sake, but because this is what the
world demands of responsible powers". He also said the issue is "about which party is
undermining the status quo that has upheld peace and stability — a peace and stability that has
worked for all" and that "the international community has made clear that it has an interest in
that peace and stability, and the United States will do our part to preserve it. This is not about
bilateral U.S.-China dynamics; it’s a question of what’s in the best interests of the region and
what’s in the best interest of the international community".
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