I am sorry but I don't agree, that statement presumes that the goal is to defeat the enemy in a conflict.

The goal is clearly to avoid having the conflict in the first place. To do that you must make clear to the opposing side where the line is and that they should not cross it.

The policy until now was not to appear weak, but to maintain an ambiguity, cynically allowing the US to partly deter an attack, preventing Taiwan from declaring indepence and maintaining the option of not getting involved without losing credibility.

By my armchair amateur analysis I think that while the policy worked great in the past, it looks like now it is starting to fail to deter and the option of not getting involved without losing credibility was always an illusion. The only thing it achieves now is the prevention of Taiwan declaring independence.

To me at least it looks it's time to make it clear that Taiwan will be defended, in order to deter war.