The US army has been training the Taiwanese army secretly for more than 1 year.
In June 2020, the 1st Special Forces Group of the US Army (1st Special Forces Group – 1st SFG (A)) released a short video showing US Green Berets operating alongside the 101st Battalion of Taiwanese amphibious reconnaissance.
This is despite the Biden Administration’s adherence to Beijing’s “one China” principle as it tries to normalize trade ties with China and continues to deliver military weapons to Taiwan.
The presence of US troops on Taiwanese soil has not been reported widely so far.
Following the release of the video by the US Army (1st Special Forces Group – 1st SFG (A)), the Taiwanese daily United Daily News confirmed the nature of the images and said, US special forces were training their Taiwanese counterpart regularly, albeit in discretion, within the framework of “Balance Tamper”.
Interestingly, the Chinese, who are usually very quick to react on any US weapons supply to Taiwan, took more time in making any comments.
On July 30, the Chinese Ministry of Defense said, it was in “firm opposition to the sending by the United States of military personnel in the area of Taiwan for exercises and exchanges”.
It also termed the training as “deliberate and provocative acts” which violate “seriously the fundamental norms of international relations” as well as “an erroneous signal to the separatist elements of Taiwan”.
The Chinese comments despite Beijing encroaching on land with each of its neighbors.
Beijing’s spokesman Zhao Lijian called on the United States to “fully recognize the great sensitivity of issues related to Taiwan” and “the one-China principle”.
Unlike his fiery rhetoric, in a measured tone, he also called on the US to “stop forging military ties with Taiwan so as not to seriously undermine the Sino-American relationship”.
In recent weeks, in a show of force, the Chinese military sent more than 150 planes into Taiwanese Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ), including 56 in a single wave which included 12 H-6K strategic bombers.
“It is the most difficult situation that I have seen in more than forty years of military life,” said Chiu Kuo-cheng, Taiwanese Minister of Defense, in comments to the parliament on October 6.
“By 2025, China will reduce the cost and wear and tear [of a potential invasion of Taiwan] to their lowest point. It has the capacity today, but it will not start a war easily, having to take into account many other elements”.
He went on to add, stress levels had reached a point that a slight “miscalculation” could give rise to a “crisis” in the Strait of Formosa.
On October 7, CIA director, Williams Burns, announced the creation of a new unit within the agency, called “China Mission Center” [CMC], whose task is to focus on the “most geopolitical threat. important thing we are facing in the 21st century: an increasingly hostile Chinese government.”
