OAN Staff James Meyers
8:24 AM – Friday, September 13, 2024
The Navy Seal team that killed Osama Bin Laden has now spent over a year training to help Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion, according to a new report.
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Members of SEAL Team Six, which is one of only two hyper-elite “Tier One” special operations squads in the U.S., have been preparing to deploy to Taiwan in the event that China’s People’s Liberation Army crosses the Taiwan Strait and invades the island nation, according to the Financial Times.
Meanwhile, details of the training, which is taking place at the team’s secret base at Dam Neck near Virginia Beach, and how the commando unit would be used if war were to break out has remained top secret, according to the outlet.
SEAL Team Six is often entrusted to conduct the most difficult and dangerous missions across the globe.
The unit is also known for the rescue of Richard Phillips when the American captain’s container ship was taken hostage by Somali pirates in 2009, which were events that inspired the Tom Hanks movie “Captain Phillips.”
Two years later the Seal team’s legacy was cemented when it conducted a daring nighttime raid on Bin Laden’s Pakistani compound in 2011, killing the terrorist behind al Qaeda’s 9/11 attacks.
While the Pentagon has regularly sent other special operations units to help train and bolster the Taiwanese military, the U.S. Defense Department has said all its forces “prepare and train for a wide range of contingencies.”
Meanwhile, the U.S. has previously stressed that war with China is “neither imminent nor inevitable,” but the American military has notably increased its contingency preparations after 2021, when then-U.S. Indo-Pacific commander Phil Davidson warned that China could attack Taiwan within six years.
Additionally, the same alarm bells were sounded by the CIA last year, stating reports that Chinese President Xi Jinping ordered his forces to be capable of invading Taiwan by 2027.
Beijing considers Taiwan as a renegade province that must be reunited under the banner of the Chinese Communist Party, by any means necessary.
Additionally, America is obliged to help Taiwan defend itself against China under the Taiwan Relations Act.
The Biden administration has stated throughout his presidency that U.S. forces would aid should China invade.
However, it remains unclear if the U.S. would engage in combat against China given its policy of “strategic ambiguity” toward Taiwan.
After China conducted large-scale military drills this summer, U.S. Admiral Samuel Paparo warned that America would destroy any foreign forces trying to invade via the Taiwan Strait, stating that the water would turn into a “hellscape.”
The Chinese Embassy in Washington has warned the U.S. to cease military action around Taiwan.
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