The US is set to expand the number of troops helping train Taiwanese forces, two US officials said on Thursday, although the White House declined to comment on the details.
Reuters in 2021 reported that a small number of US special operations forces have been rotating into Taiwan on a temporary basis to train the military.
The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the Pentagon was expected to increase that number in the coming months.
Photo: CNA
One of the officials said the exact number of increased troops was unclear.
“Our support for and defense relationship with Taiwan remains aligned against the current threat posed by the People’s Republic of China and consistent with our ‘one China’ policy. That has not changed,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said when asked about the report in a daily news briefing.
“Our commitment to Taiwan contributes to the maintenance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and within the region,” she said.
On the decision to send more troops to Taiwan, Jean-Pierre said questions on specific troop numbers should be referred to the US Department of Defense, which had yet to respond to the report as of Thursday night.
Speaking to reporters in Taipei yesterday, Minister of National Defense Chiu Kuo-cheng (邱國正) said he “did not know” the source of the information about expanded training.
He said that Taiwan and the US have substantial military interaction, which naturally includes personnel coming to teach how to use equipment the US sells to Taiwan.
However, it does not involve stationing troops in Taiwan, Chiu added.
The Wall Street Journal earlier on Thursday reported that the US was markedly increasing the number of troops deployed to Taiwan to bolster a training program for the military.
“The US plans to deploy between 100 and 200 troops to the island in the coming months, up from roughly 30 there a year ago,” the report said, citing US officials.
The larger force would expand a training program the Pentagon has taken pains not to publicize as the US works to provide Taipei with the capabilities it needs to defend itself without provoking Beijing, the report said.
The planned increase would also be the largest deployment of forces in decades by the US in Taiwan, as the two draw closer to counter China’s growing military power, the report said.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated in an online discussion on Thursday why the US felt the stakes in the Taiwan Strait were so high.
He said the high concern over a crisis across the Taiwan Strait exists because it is not an internal matter, as China frames it.
“It’s a matter of concern to quite literally the entire world,” he told Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic as they reviewed the implications of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Half of all commercial container traffic goes through that waterway every day, Blinken said, adding that most of the semiconductors that the world needs are produced in Taiwan.
“If there were a crisis in Taiwan as a result of China’s aggression in some fashion, that would have, I think, disastrous consequences for the world economy and for countries around the world, and that’s a message, too, that Beijing is hearing increasingly,” Blinken said.
LIMITS: While China increases military pressure on Taiwan and expands its use of cognitive warfare, it is unwilling to target tech supply chains, the report said US and Taiwan military officials have warned that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) could implement a blockade within “a matter of hours” and need only “minimal conversion time” prior to an attack on Taiwan, a report released on Tuesday by the US Senate’s China Economic and Security Review Commission said. “While there is no indication that China is planning an imminent attack, the United States and its allies and partners can no longer assume that a Taiwan contingency is a distant possibility for which they would have ample time to prepare,” it said. The commission made the comments in its annual
DETERMINATION: Beijing’s actions toward Tokyo have drawn international attention, but would likely bolster regional coordination and defense networks, the report said Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s administration is likely to prioritize security reforms and deterrence in the face of recent “hybrid” threats from China, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said. The bureau made the assessment in a written report to the Legislative Yuan ahead of an oral report and questions-and-answers session at the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The key points of Japan’s security reforms would be to reinforce security cooperation with the US, including enhancing defense deployment in the first island chain, pushing forward the integrated command and operations of the Japan Self-Defense Forces and US Forces Japan, as
IN THE NATIONAL INTEREST: Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu said the strengthening of military facilities would help to maintain security in the Taiwan Strait Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi, visiting a military base close to Taiwan, said plans to deploy missiles to the post would move forward as tensions smolder between Tokyo and Beijing. “The deployment can help lower the chance of an armed attack on our country,” Koizumi told reporters on Sunday as he wrapped up his first trip to the base on the southern Japanese island of Yonaguni. “The view that it will heighten regional tensions is not accurate.” Former Japanese minister of defense Gen Nakatani in January said that Tokyo wanted to base Type 03 Chu-SAM missiles on Yonaguni, but little progress
NO CHANGES: A Japanese spokesperson said that Tokyo remains consistent and open for dialogue, while Beijing has canceled diplomatic engagements A Japanese official blasted China’s claims that Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has altered Japan’s position on a Taiwan crisis as “entirely baseless,” calling for more dialogue to stop ties between Asia’s top economies from spiraling. China vowed to take resolute self-defense against Japan if it “dared to intervene militarily in the Taiwan Strait” in a letter delivered Friday to the UN. “I’m aware of this letter,” said Maki Kobayashi, a senior Japanese government spokeswoman. “The claim our country has altered its position is entirely baseless,” she said on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Johannesburg on Saturday. The Chinese Ministry
RSS