At the US Military Academy graduation in June, a cadet from Tai-wan marched up to receive his diploma and thus became the first soldier from his nation ever to graduate from West Point. A few weeks earlier, a marine captain from Taiwan had completed a grueling 30-week course run by the US Navy's commandos known as SEALs and received his golden trident insignia.
The West Pointer, Lee Wu-ling(李武陵), has returned home and was commissioned a second lieutenant. The marine, Yu Kuei-lin (余奎麟), was congratulated in person by President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) before starting to train other marines.
These two young officers reflect a quiet expansion in US military relations with Taiwan in which the US and the Taiwanese are walking on a razor's edge.
On one side, their alliance is intended to deter a Chinese attack on Taiwan by showing Beijing that the US and Taiwan are working together. On the other, the part-ners try to avoid antagonizing the Chinese, who vigorously denounce every instance of US-Taiwan collaboration.
Over the last five years, beginning in the Clinton administration and continuing under President George W. Bush, Taiwan has become the third-largest recipient of US security assistance, behind only Egypt and Israel.
A US Defense Department spokesman declined to disclose the value of that assistance but pointed to clues in a Pentagon report. It said deliveries and future commitments in US military sales to Taiwan last year amounted to US$1.1 billion, compared with US$1.3 billion to Israel and US$1.9 billion to Egypt.
Most attention in Washington and Taipei -- and bitter opposition in Beijing -- has been directed at arms sales, including a proposed package of submarines.
The more telling US aid, however, has been in training Taiwan's young officers, rendering operational advice to senior officers, and coordinating war plans. About 200 military personnel from Tai-wan are studying in the US, including 39 at military acade-mies, according to Taiwan's representative office in Washington.
In return, West Point cadets have visited the military academy in southern Taiwan for a two-week orientation. A lieutenant colonel from Taiwan, Ken Chang, has been teaching a course at West Point on Sun Tzu (孫子), who wrote the classic Art of War 2,500 years ago.
US colonels and Navy captains often observe Taiwanese training, evaluate command and communications practices, and urge Tai-wan's leaders to integrate the operations of their air, sea and land forces. To avoid attracting Chinese criticism, US officers do not wear their uniforms in Taiwan.
At a higher level, Taiwan and the US have each devised contingency plans to repel a Chinese assault since Beijing has repeatedly threatened to attack if Taipei declares independence. The US would be obliged to help defend Taiwan unless the Taipei deliberately provoked Chinese hostilities.
US and Taiwanese military leaders have begun coordinating those plans, with Taiwan more forthcoming with the US than is the US with the Taiwanese as the Americans are worried that their plans would be leaked.
US-Taiwan military collaboration started in 1996, after China fired missiles in the direction of Taiwan and the US deployed two aircraft carriers to nearby seas.
Michael Pillsbury, a longtime China expert and an associate fellow at the Pentagon's Institute for National and Strategic Studies, has written that US and Taiwan-ese strategic thinkers began meeting in Monterey, California, in 1997. The focus has been on strategy, not arms sales, in the ensuing eight rounds of discussions.
In 1998, a Pentagon delegation quietly visited Taiwan at the invitation of former minister of national defense Tang Fei (唐飛) to discuss national strategy. The following year, US teams visited Taiwan to assess the island's air defenses, anti-submarine operations and plans for countering a Chinese invasion.
The Pentagon decided in April 2001 that arms sales to Taiwan would be considered on an as-needed basis, not just once a year. Also in 2001, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz flew to Florida to meet then minister of national defense Tang Yao-ming (湯耀明) at a conference of the US-Taiwan Business Council, the highest level contact in two decades.
Later, American officers encouraged Taiwan to forge a capacity for operating with US forces and others if that became necessary.
As Pillsbury asserted: "If deterrence fails, Taiwan, supported by the US and its allies, must be prepared to swiftly defeat the PRC's use of force."
Richard Halloran is a journalist based in Hawaii.
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