Twice in two months, U.S. President Joe Biden has said that the United States would "defend" Taiwan should Beijing take it by force, though the White House, on both occasions, wasted no time in clarifying that the administration's policy towards the island remains unchanged.

Then, also in a departure from past practice, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken late last month called for support for Taiwan's "robust participation" in the UN system.

Not to mention that such gestures come after months of Washington's ramping up the temperature on issues related to China's Taiwan region by landing military transport planes on the island, updating "official" exchanges and approving fresh arms sales to the region.

By adopting what analysts call a salami-slice strategy, the U.S. has staged one dangerous provocation against China after another on Taiwan – "the most sensitive issue" in the single most important bilateral relationship in the world today, potentially sliding into another strategic failure that could lead to a catastrophe.

What does the U.S. want?

In his first speech as Secretary of State, Blinken said in February, "Our relationship with China will be competitive when it should be, collaborative when it can be, adversarial when it must be," rolling out the so-called "3C" strategy on China: competition, cooperation and confrontation.

Speaking virtually at the East Asia Summit last month, Biden attacked China for its "coercive" actions over the Taiwan Straits and its "aggression" in the Indo-Pacific region.

The United States, by making noises out of the Taiwan issue and hollowing out its commitment to the one-China policy, has two strategic goals in mind, Sun Chenghao, adjunct fellow at the Center for the International Security and Strategy (CISS), Tsinghua University, told CGTN.

"One is for 'competition' with China, and the other is to use it as a tool to reorient into the Indo-Pacific region," he said, adding that the U.S. move is bad and wrong.

By defining the bilateral ties as "competitive" through actions, the U.S. government has failed to see the importance of cooperation with China on such global challenges as COVID-19, which is problematic and sad, said Sun.

He added that the U.S. also knows very well that it wants to manufacture "a controllable crisis" in the region, but also warned about an increasingly high chance of miscalculations and misjudgments.

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Wang Yiwei, director of the Institute of International Affairs at Renmin University of China, said there is a misperception of the nature of the Taiwan question on the part of the United States.

"For the U.S., Taiwan is only something strategic," he told CGTN. "But for China, it is a matter of sovereignty. It is a matter of national security, with national reunification at stake."

Singapore's defense minister, Ng Eng Hen, last Thursday told a security forum in Washington that the Taiwan question is "a deep red line" for Beijing, urging the U.S. to "stay very far away" from any physical confrontation with China over it.

Wang said China and America should do more to reach an agreement in this regard, adding that he believes the U.S. side will have to accept the fact when China is strong enough. 

'Strategic initiative is on Beijing's side'

China has repeatedly denounced the "dangerous" moves by Washington, and urged it to stop its connivance or support for "Taiwan independence" forces.

Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said if the Taiwan issue is handled wrongly, it will cause subversive and overall damage to China-U.S. bilateral ties when he met with his U.S. counterpart Antony Blinken in Rome on the sidelines of the G20 meetings.

Wang Yi called on the U.S. side to truly implement the one-China policy, instead of saying one thing and doing another.

China and America should build a stable, reliable and regular mechanism of dialogue on Taiwan, said Sun, the CISS researcher.

"China can continue to produce a negative list for the U.S. side and tell it what is totally unacceptable when it comes to Taiwan," he said.

The U.S. is being anxious when it keeps making an issue out of the Taiwan region because now the strategic initiative is on Beijing's side, according to Wang Yiwei, the expert with Renmin University of China.

He cited reasons of a narrowed gap of strength between China and the U.S., partisan fighting in America's domestic politics, and more importantly, the status of its "vulnerable" system of allies.

"It is like there are more than 60 birds in the tree. After one is shot, the rest will also fly away. This is what puts the U.S. alliance system in such an awkward position."

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