A small contingent of U.S. troops has been deployed to Taiwan to train local forces, a move applauded by senior Senate Republicans as a deterrent to a potential Chinese invasion of the island.
“It has been going on for quite some time,” Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe, the top Republican on the Armed Services Committee, told the Washington Examiner when asked about the training operations.
Inhofe said he couldn’t confirm offhand whether the troops are in place at the moment, but the Wall Street Journal reported that the teams of special forces operators and Marines have been on the island for more than a year. The duration of that effort was leaked this week, as President Joe Biden’s administration tries to find a balance between dialogue with Beijing and the risk of conflict.
“I think it’s a good thing for us to show support for the folks of Taiwan and to show China that we mean business and hands off Taiwan,” Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services subcommittee that oversees the U.S. Special Operations Command, told the Washington Examiner.
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Neither Ernst nor her colleague on the Emerging Threats and Capabilities subcommittee, Sen. Rick Scott, could say how long the U.S.-Taiwan training operations will continue. But Scott, a Florida Republican, said that even a small contingent such as the two dozen special forces operators reported to be on the island could help protect Taiwan, due to the potential that Beijing would regard them as a trip wire for a larger U.S. intervention to contest an invasion.
“I believe it does and I believe it’s important to do it,” the Florida Republican said. “Taiwan is an independent democracy and we should stop being ambiguous and be very clear that we’re going to defend them.”
The United States historically has avoided making an explicit commitment to fight on behalf of Taiwan, even while maintaining friendly unofficial relations with the government in Taipei and providing Taiwanese forces with military equipment intended to ward off an assault from Beijing, which claims sovereignty over the island but has never ruled in Taipei.
Chinese forces have sent an unprecedented number of warplanes towards the island over the last week, sorties that seem designed to celebrate the People’s Republic of China’s Oct. 1 national day and condemn Taiwan’s observation of an Oct. 10 national day.
White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Chinese Communist Party Politburo member Yang Jiechi converged on Zurich this week for a meeting that Beijing touted as a salutary conversation.
“China has noted that the U.S. has stated that it has no intention of containing China’s development and will not engage in a ‘new cold war,’” Yang was quoted Thursday as saying. “It hopes that the U.S. will adopt a rational and pragmatic policy towards China and work with China to respect each other’s core interests and major concerns.”
Secretary of State Antony Blinken nevertheless cautioned Beijing that its repeated threats against Taiwan raise the chances of a conflict that could have grave consequences.
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Scott, the Florida Republican, condemned the Chinese air force sorties as “pretty disgusting” and a sign of Chinese General Secretary Xi Jinping’s ambitions.
“Xi is into world domination,” he said. “He already took over Hong Kong, with no guns. And, I think he’s going to do everything he can to intimidate the world and take over Taiwan.”
