US military advisors have been deployed to Kinmen, a group of small islands that are controlled by Taiwan but located just off the coast of mainland China, Taiwan’s TVBS has reported.
When asked to confirm the highly provocative deployment to Kinmen, the Pentagon said it could not comment. “We don’t have a comment on specific operations, engagements, or training” with Taiwan, Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Marty Meiners told Antiwar.com in an email.
“But I would highlight that our support for, and defense relationship with, Taiwan remains aligned against the current threat posed by the People’s Republic of China. Our commitment to Taiwan is rock-solid,” Meiners said.
The US typically sends special operations forces, such as US Army Green Berets, to act as advisors in Taiwan. The TVBS report said the advisors were sent to Kinmen for “long-term stations” at the Taiwanese military’s “amphibious camps.” Advisors were also sent to Penghu, an archipelago about 30 miles west of the main island of Taiwan.
The report said the deployment fulfilled the US’s 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which called for the US to increase its training of Taiwan’s forces. The 2024 NDAA, which President Biden signed into law in December, required the Pentagon to establish a “comprehensive” training program for the Taiwanese military.
The US has significantly increased its military and diplomatic support for Taiwan in recent years, ratcheting up tensions with China. Last year, the US deployed around 200 troops to Taiwan, marking the largest known US military presence on the island since the US pulled its troops out after Washington severed diplomatic relations with Taipei in 1979.
The US also recently began providing Taiwan with unprecedented military aid. Since 1979, the US has always sold weapons to Taiwan but never financed the purchases or provided arms free of charge until last year.
The new US support for Taiwan is being done in the name of deterrence, but China’s actions and rhetoric have made it clear the US steps are just making war more likely. This reality was put on display in August 2022 when then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) visited Taiwan despite repeated warnings from China. In response, the Chinese military launched its largest-ever military drills around the island.
These people are stupid, insane, greedy, arrogant and devoid of any humanity.
“But I would highlight that our support for, and defense relationship with, Taiwan remains aligned against the current threat posed by the People’s Republic of China. Our commitment to Taiwan is rock-solid,” Meiners said.
Tawain is all the way up to rock-solid. Not quite ironclad, but above unwavering. And it’s like these responses are almost rehearsed. Almost.
And extremely dangerous…!!!!!!
It doesn’t matter how ‘ironclad’ or ‘unwavering’ our support is. Those are just words. In order for the US to match our alligator mouth to something other than a canary bird ass we need goods! Ships, planes, missiles, artillery, and a million other little ods and ends that are essential.
Just three problems. First we don’t have any industry. Our ‘elites’ sent all that overseas for improved profits for themselves. And you don’t just open foundries and precision metalworking and machinists shops galore. You have to build the tools and train the workers to build the bigger and better tools before you start building ships and tanks and bombs and missiles (like the MINUTEMEN II in the silos of the northern prairie.) If you doubt this, just look at the videos coming from independent vloggers out of Russia/Ukraine. We are out of stuff and it is becoming more obvious every day. (Heck, even mainstream media is talking about shell starvation.)
Second is even worse. Our stuff is junk and well behind the curve technology wise. Even if we could make enough stuff to conduct industrial scale peer to peer warfare we first have to catch up. We have NO air defense systems that will work against first or second line missile technology. Our fighter is designed as a one size fits all roles dogfighter to close in ground support to supersonic interceptor roles and does None of them well. The Navy is mired in ships that don’t work such as the Littoral destroyer they can’t build a gun for or the aircraft carrier with failing catapult and arrest systems. But that’s okay because the high quality crew and leadership will save the, ugh oh, was that a sound of crashing ships? Needless to say, but the above flaws are a sign of a deeply broken weapons design and procurement process. Our stuff is designed to make profits, provide kickbacks to supporters, put jobs in certain congressional districts, allow cost overruns, yield high revenue maintenance contracts by overly complex design and manufacturing and lastly to keep prices high, production low and profit margins above all else.
The third is the worst. We can’t make the stuff because our whole system of taxes and regulations have been tweaked since ‘back in the day.’ The system is optimized for the FIRE* economy not the productive economy.* Sundance at theconservativetreehouse has been talking about the change from main Street to Wall street for years. It would require the complete retooling of the tax/regulatory system aimed at disadvantaging the most powerful and wealthy lever holders ever. Shouldn’t take but a minute. As a final note, my father spent a good deal of time with the men who made famous the phrase “The difficult we do right away, the impossible takes a little longer.” and there are not nearly enough men like that left to save the day. Make your plans accordingly!
*FIRE Finance, Insurance, Real Estate.
**See Michael Hudson for a completely different look at this point. https://michael-hudson.com/2023/01/introducing-the-geopolitical-economy-hour/
PEACE is the only solution. How can we get there?… LET US KNOW.
Another petty provocation in the march to the next proxy war.
`The US typically sends special operations forces, such as US Army Green Berets, to act as advisors in Taiwan.`
But then the writer is all concerned about couple advisors sent to the island. Amazing.
Write one about Wagner in Africa, that would be very interesting with all the F cked up sh!t they are doing there but perhaps too much for the Putin Lovers here.
Good on you. Stick to the plethora of such articles in Western Minority World media. Arent they enough for you?
Wagner isn’t part of the United States, the foremost GOOD country in the world, remember. We have enough on our plate to stop bitching about what other countries do or don’t do.
Yes, Wagner is not part of the United States, conveniently, but when it comes to support them, you are right up there not giving two sh!ts on whether or not they are part of the US and going above and beyond here to defend them.
So you cannot criticize other belligerents because they are not part of the US but you can support them because they are not part of the US.
Another hypocrite.
So why are you concerned about Wagner. Put your snout on problems caused by the United States and maybe you could actually do some good, instead of harping on your continual litany of warmongering for others. Now don’t forget to vote for Trump or you are anti-US/anti-American. HOw’d you like your bs words vomited back at you. And stop your unholy fascination with excrement which probably applies to most your allies.
Shall I say it again, FJB!
ok if Biden loses the election and Trump is reinstated and SURPRISE! nothing changes, except for more tax-cuts for corporations, … how many of us will still pretend that the US is finally headed onto the right track ?
what
LOL. Did you mean to say, NO SURPRISE? wut
It’s obvious the Chinese are plastic-seeking, child-like Russian dependents.
It seems like a mistake that a platform as well-versed in these issues as antiwar.com would mention US troops in Kinmen and Taiwan without mentioning that the vast majority of the world recognizes these islands as part of China. Many countries would consider this an active declaration of war, not just a provocation. A few kilometers from the mainland no less. It seems essential to me to recognize just how far the U.S. is pushing this.
US totalitarianism is cracking under the strain of propaganda maintenance. A thin strata of half-educated economic elite rely on austerity programs to pay for their gate guards. The rich need diversions to keep people in bread lines from asking questions.
If this article is truly correct and Chinese are even half as morally upright and virtuous as Houthis, they would simply take the Kinmen pawn.
Most writers at Antiwar.com do seem to go along with the bizarre fiction that an independent nation which is not and never has been part of the People’s Republic of China is in fact part of a state it is not and never has been part of. Maybe Dave just forgot to put on clown makeup and giant shoes this morning.
You have somehow missed that other failing dynasties have fled to Taiwan in the past. In those days there was no centrally planned corporatist empire sending provocateurs to force separation. The idea of nations had not even been invented yet. If idiot partially educated Americans get back to tending their own business, the US might avoid collapse and advance in health to the level of Cubans.
Dave is the editor of this news site that you ocassionally write articles for. Lately your comments are in such bad taste, which is why I keep calling them out when I see them.
It’s not “going along with” the idea that Taiwan is part of China. It’s calling out the new narrative that Tiawan should be completely independent, and that the U.S. has some interest in supporting such a movement. This is the opposite of what the U.S. government policy since the Nixon administration.
This new narrative is extremely dangerous, and quite frankly the issue is none of our business. The number one way to lose the superconductor supply from Taiwan is to provoke conflict with China – whether or not we believe it is or should be part of China. It doesn’t matter either way. Our government’s job should be to protect our national interests. If that means ensuring that we have access to superconductors from Taiwan, instigating conflict by flaring up tensions is the opposite.
Lastly, Dave’s reporting on this has been balanced, rational, and well-informed. He doesn’t make unsubstantiated claims. Nor does he write put-downs about other journalists. The guy works damn hard to produce news that the public desperately needs. What have you done for the anti-war movement lately?
It’s hardly a “new narrative.” Taiwan has been completely independent of mainland China since 1895.
We might want to be a little more detailed about that. Taiwan did not magically become independent of China in 1895. It was ceded to Japan after China’s loss in the Sino-Japanese war. That was considered a national humiliation in China. The treaty that ceded Taiwan to China is considered null and void by both Taiwan and the Mainland. From 1895 to 1945 Japan ruled over Taiwan.
So for hundreds of years, Taiwan was ruled by China and then Japan grabbed and held it for 50 years from 1895 to 1945. But with that exception clearly reversed by the terms of surrender in WWII, Taiwan has been part of the One China whose internationally recognized government resides in Beijing as a glance at the permanent members of the Security Council tells us.
To his credit Dave DeCamp does not harp on that fact but we should all be aware of it. The One China policy was conceived as a way to peace, and it is best for peace to let the ambiguity stand rather than trying to chip away at it.
I might add that the great majority of Taiwanese are for keeping this ambiguous status quo with only a very small percentage opting for independence (~3%) or unification (~1%) in the foreseeable future. An anti-interventionist stand would dictate that we honor that sentiment and retain from arguing for independence or unification right now.
“An anti-interventionist stand would dictate that we honor that sentiment and retain from arguing for independence or unification right now.”
Any “ought” should take cognizance of the existing “is.”
Taiwan is independent of the People’s Republic of China. The latter doesn’t rule the former. The latter never has ruled the former.
An American anti-interventionist stand would dictate that the US regime take no action aimed at either maintaining or changing that fact of reality. Nothing in such a stand requires us to pretend that the situation is some other situation than what it is.
The Middle East was completely independent of a regime called Israel far earlier than 1895.
I’m a big fan of Dave’s reporting.
One reason I’m a big fan of Dave’s reporting is that he doesn’t feel any need to salt the news with the “but we WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT Taiwan to be part of the PRC, so it ISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS part of the PRC” line that so many people rage about if it’s ever omitted from any piece with the word “China” in it.
Yet THEY claimed they were part of China and in fact were the legal government of all of China which was recognized by the UN from 1949 to 1971 and by the US from 1949 to 1979. Little Taiwan recognized by the world as part of China and governing all of China was the bizarre fiction.
Yes, the Taiwanese regime (“Republic of China”) claimed they were part of China, and in fact were the legal government of all of China.
Which was just as absurd as the PRC claiming to be the legal government of an island 100 miles off the coast of China which it has never ruled.
Which is as absurd as Hawaii being a US State? We’ve had this discussion many times in the past, Thomas.
Yes, we have.
The situations would be similar if the US had partly conquered Hawaii in the late 1600s instead of the late 1800s, then ceded it to the Philippines in 1895, then that US regime had been overthrown by a completely new regime in 1949, then that new US regime claimed that Hawaii had “always” been under its rule.
A temporary form of government – the CPC – doesn’t negate the fact that Taiwan was part of China most of recordable history.
Sure, if by “recordable history” you mean “an incredibly tiny fraction of recordable history.” Mainland Chinese started settling in Taiwan about 400 years ago, shortly before it was colonized by the Dutch. and Spanish. It slowly became partly ruled from mainland China in the late 1600s (the indigenous Taiwanese continue to hold parts of it), then was ceded to Japan by the mainland Chinese regime in 1895.
How could China have ceded it to Japan if it wasn’t a Chinese province.
Correction: “…then was ceded to the Imperial Japanese Regime by China……”
Correction: “then was ceded to the Imperial Japanese Regime by one of the Imperial Chinese Regimes which thereafter ceased to exist and was replaced no fewer than two times before a new Imperial Chinese Regime started insisting that a place it had never, at any time, ruled, magically ‘belonged’ to it.”
The British had a Fort, now a museum north of Taipei, too. The Quarters of he Officers in command are adorned with the furniture of the time. Really an educational visit. Its cannons overlooked the wide river that joined the Pacific in Tamsui, Taiwan. The Dutch made incursions/settlements in southern Taiwan, Tainan/Kaohsiung area. Now the primary domain of the DPP.
Has Taiwan ever stopped making that claim?
I know that Formosans advocating for Taiwanese independence would incur government persecution in the past and many native Formosans consider the Chinese Nationalist takeover to be an act of imperialist aggression.
You are correct. Support of the Republic of China amounts to support of one side in China’s Civil war.
If ordinary Americans were asked if their country should meddle in China’s civil war, the answer would be negative
It’s true that the PRC never has ruled over Formosa, but Formosa and the Pescadores (Penghu) were Chinese territory for several centuries before they were ceded to Japan by the Treaty of Shimonoseki of April 18, 1895.
Friendly fire, bud.
You are bashing a platform and an author that sides with you on that issue.
But i just noticed you are new to this site (maybe) so take some time and get a feel for it before you point fingers in the wrong direction.
No disrespect intended at all. I and many other people looking for peace turn to Antiwar for news, they are trusted which is why it feels more important that they make clear what this means
Yeah thats how the Vietnam war started at the out break of fighting there were 25,000 advisors in Vietnam , and the yanks still LOST .
Will the Biden regime provoke China and then hide in secure bunkers while every USA citizen gets nuked?
When China invades Kinmen Islands, Marty shouldn’t have any comments either…!
Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Marty Meiners
“But I would highlight that our support for, and defense relationship with, Taiwan remains aligned against the current threat posed by the People’s Republic of China. Our commitment to Taiwan is rock-solid,”
“We stand by our Commitments” (numerous times) – Assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbrooke , while touring Asian nations months prior to the US announcing withdrawal of all US military personnel in Taiwan, unilateral abrogation of the Taiwan-US Mutual Defense Treaty, and withdrawal of diplomatic recognition of Taiwan as a Nation, announced in 1978.
Julio down by the Courtyard: You doubt history or you just don’t like the facts?