President
Joe Biden is dispatching a delegation of former U.S. officials to
Taiwan in order to reassure the island nation of America's support in the wake of the
Russian invasion of
Ukraine. Taiwan lies off the coast of southeast
China and has been claimed by its
Communist leadership for more than seven decades. However, the democratically governed island has never been ruled from Beijing, thanks in part to American military backing, which has come in the form of numerous defensive arms sales over the last 40 years.