Taiwanese troops attended a multinational military exercise inside the US last month that was led by the Michigan National Guard, Taipei Times reported, citing the Japanese newspaper Sankei Shimbun.
The exercises, known as Northern Strike, took place from August 5 to August 19 in Michigan and involved 7,000 military personnel. The report did not detail how many Taiwanese troops participated but said the scale was larger than previous training drills with the US.
Back in February, The South China Morning Post reported that Taiwan would deploy 500 troops to the US for training in the second half of the year. Taiwan has previously sent troops to the US but typically only sent a few dozen at a time.
The US and Taiwan have significantly increased military cooperation despite strong warnings from Beijing. In April, Taiwanese media reports said the US sent 200 troops to Taiwan to assist in training, the largest known US military presence on the island in decades.
The Sankei Shimbun report said the Taiwanese troops inside the US were taking part in drills led by the state-controlled Michigan National Guard rather than other US armed forces in an effort not to “provoke China too much.”
The US began expanding its training of Taiwan’s military to include the US National Guard in 2022, a move that’s been compared to the US National Guard beginning to train Ukrainian forces in 2014, following the US-backed coup that ousted former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.
US training Taiwanese troops to lose in case of a war…! The same way US trained the Afghani troops and the Ukrainian troops…!
Just think of how well that training has served Ukrainian troops.
Being a Michigander, I want to upchuck.
Wars, how the f*ck were we deprived of this information of a travesty right here in our own state?!
We were not even given the right to protest this bullsh*t!
I hear ya. I hadn’t heard a thing about it until I saw the headline. But I live in the UP and we get shit late. But if you hadn’t heard either, now that is shameful. I’m sure there would have been some protests formed.
Preparing a brigade for the coup in case KMT wins.
“Taiwanese troops” are a joke. There is a skeletal minority of career soldiers, fleshed out by conscripts which have been “trained” for four months, mostly policing the area and painting rocks. Taiwan has said that there will be a transition to a year’s training on January first.
On the street in Taipei, there’s a “who cares” attitude — let the US use its troops to do the heavy lifting, which is supported by blather-headed Congress-critters like Rep. Rob Wittman (R-VA) who is promising a “resolute reaction” from the US if China acts.
Last election, I guess what would be like midterms here, the leader’s party was roundly defeated and she stepped down as head of the party in shame. Most people like the autonomy they’ve been experiencing but don’t want war. Like in the US, they were concerned with local issues like infrastructure or pollution, things of that nature. Leaders don’t give a phuck what the people want. And they call that democracy.
The UN and most of the civilized world recognize the FACT that Taiwan is part of and under the jurisdiction of mainland China. Once again, the US is aggressively pursuing FA that antagonizes other nations. I can’t wait for the day (coming sooner rather than later, when the USD collapses and the US loses its ability to engage in gunfire diplomacy
What would be even funnier if some of these soldiers are double agents for CCP and are reporting back with all these secret trainings.