Things may be heating up around the Strait of Taiwan as China continues to rattle its saber over the island nation, and now the U.S. has stepped up its presence in the area.
Taiwan has now acknowledged that it is hosting U.S. troops on some of its outlying islands, a fact that is sure to infuriate the Chinese who claim Taiwan and all its surrounding islands.
The country’s defense minister, Chiu Kuo-cheng, would not offer many details on the U.S. troops, but did note that the presence is among the islands around Kinmen — three miles off the coast of the Chinese coastal city of Xiamen, according to the Wall Street Journal.
“This exchange is for mutual observation, to identify the problems we have, figure out how to improve and to recognize their strengths so we can learn from them,” Chiu told the media on Thursday.
Chiu added that his government works with the militaries of several nations because Taiwan “may have some blind spots or shortcomings” in its defense.
The presence of the U.S. troops was first reported by the online publication Sofrep, the WSJ said.
Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Marty Meiners also acknowledged the troop placement.
“Our commitment to Taiwan is rock-solid and contributes to the maintenance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and within the region,” the officer said.
Kinmen has already been the focus of tensions between Taiwan and China since two Chinese fishermen died after their boat capsized while being pursued by the Taiwanese coast guard.
Will war soon break out between the U.S. and China?
Naturally, China claimed that the incident was an assault on Chinese citizens, and called the deaths a “vicious incident.” The Chinese government used the incident to step up its own patrols in the area.
The Kinmen troop deployment is only the latest after the Pentagon reported that U.S. troops had been deployed to Taiwan to train the country’s troops.
China’s communist party has never controlled Taiwan, but the Chinese government claims ownership of the island chain and has been warning the U.S. that it eventually intends to take control of Taiwan whether the country claims to be autonomous or not.
Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen also admitted that the U.S. troops are in his country, according to Newsweek.
“We have a wide range of cooperation with the U.S. aiming at increasing our defense capability,” Tsai said, adding, “Not as many as people thought.”
Newsweek noted that at least 30 U.S. military personnel have been helping to train Taiwanese troops.
Naturally, China denounced the U.S. presence.
“We firmly oppose official exchanges and military contact of any kind between the United States and the Taiwan region,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin.
The situation between China and Taiwan is one of the worst hotspots in the world. And the U.S. has supported Taiwan for decades despite China’s threats of war. But if China really does open a military offensive against Taiwan, the U.S. will be at a decided disadvantage. After all, Taiwan is only miles away from the coast of the Chinese mainland. Meanwhile, the U.S.A. is halfway across the world.
If we are lucky, any military action would happen after Joe Biden is out of the White House.
