Special Operations and Marine Forces of the United States have been secretly training Taiwan troops for at least one year, at the risk of provoking china’s cholera, a Pentagon official confirmed on Thursday.
The source, which requested anonymity, pointed to AFP that a contingent of about 20 troops of special operations and conventional forces, has been conducting training for one year.
The official thus confirmed a report by the newspaper The Wall Street Journal, which noted that some two dozen US soldiers trained Taiwanese land and maritime forces “for at least a year”, in the midst of China’s growing verbal threats against the island
Allied United States.
Although a year ago that it was rumored that the forces of the United States could be in Taiwan, until now nobody had confirmed it.
The Taiwan Ministry of Defense refused to comment on the report.
Meanwhile, the spokesman for the Pentagon, John Supple, said the US support for the Taiwan armed forces is measured according to their defense needs.
“Our support for Taiwan and our defense relations (with the island) are in line with the current threat posed by the People’s Republic of China,” said Supple in a statement.
“We urge Beijing to fulfill his commitment to the peaceful resolution of differences,” she added.
The Taiwanese Prime Minister, his Tseng-Chang, said on Friday, that “a just cause always generates a lot of support”, consulted on the report of the American newspaper.
The report seems to confirm reports from the Taiwanese press that, in November, indicated – citing Taiwan’s naval command – that US troops had arrived there to train the forces of the island in amphibious operations and small boats.
These reports had been denied by US and Taiwanese officials, which stressed that both parties maintain exchanges and bilateral military cooperation.
The United States supplies weapons to Taiwan, including defense missiles and combat aircraft, in the midst of Beijing’s threat to retake the control of the island by force and reintegrate it to China.
Washington also maintains an ambiguous commitment to defend Taiwan, which Beijing considers a renegade province.
Chinese forces have intensified their activities towards Taiwan in the last year.
The Minister of Defense Taiwanese, Chiu Kuo-Cheng, has affirmed that China will be “able to organize a large-scale invasion of the island for the year 2025 .euu and China are leading the status quo created in 1979, when Washington
He recognized Beijing as the only Chinese government with the understanding that Taiwan would have a future in peace.
Wednesday met in Zurich (Switzerland) the Maximum Head of Chinese Diplomacy, Yang Jiechi Security Advisor and the White House National Safety Adviser Jake Sullivan, a meeting in which Washington was spoken of Taiwan among other matters
.
In addition, it has been announced that the US president, Joe Biden, and that of his Chinese counterpart of him, Xi Jinping, will maintain a virtual meeting before he finishes 2021