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The U.S. sent more than 200 military “trainers” to Taiwan to help train Taiwanese troops as relations with Beijing hit new lows.
Taiwan News, citing a report from the country’s Up Media, reported that 80 percent of the trainers are from the U.S. army who will “provide on-the-spot evaluations of training and will propose improvements.”
The Wall Street Journal reported in February that the U.S. will quadruple the number of troops in Taiwan on a training mission to ready Taiwanese forces for what they expect to be a looming Chinese invasion.
Washington is working to supply Taiwan with military capabilities in ways that it believes will not provoke China to a degree that Beijing takes action, the paper said.
One U.S. official, who spoke to the paper about the training, said it is “difficult” to determine “what really is objectionable” to the country, but Washington hopes to strike that balance.
“We don’t think at the levels that we’re engaged in and are likely to remain engaged in the near future that we are anywhere close to a tipping point for China, but that’s a question that is constantly being evaluated and looked at specifically with every decision involving support to Taiwan,” the official said.
The Defense Department did not immediately respond to an email from The Trends Journal seeking comment.
Besides training within Taiwan, the paper noted that Taiwanese troops have been training in northern Michigan with the state’s National Guard. The Wall Street Journal said the expanded training “is part of a gathering U.S. push to help a close partner prepare to thwart a possible invasion by China.”
TRENDPOST: The Trends Journal’s cover today was titled, “WAR WITH CHINA, WHO WILL WIN?”
We are watching the decline of a world superpower and the rise of another unfolding before our eyes. And as America goes down, watch it ramp up an economic and military confrontation with China.
The Pentagon recently announced another record-breaking military budget request which includes a 40-percent increase for the Pacific Deterrence Initiative.” (Translation: the military encirclement of China.)
Taipei and Washington have studied the Ukraine War to learn effective ways to counter an invasion by a more powerful neighbor. Taiwan spent a record $17 billion on its military in 2022 and, in January, its parliament approved $8.6 billion more that will be earmarked for precision missiles and high-efficiency naval ships.
China considers Taiwan part of its territory to be brought under its control by force if necessary. The Diplomat noted that Taiwan split from China amid civil war in 1949, and China’s Communist Party has never ruled the island.
Wang Wenbin, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, said a “new round of tensions” in the Taiwan Strait was a result of Taipei’s attempts to “seek independence with U.S. support, as well as the U.S. intention to contain China with Taiwan.”
“We urge the U.S. to … stop any form of official U.S.-Taiwan contacts, stop meddling in the Taiwan issue and stop creating new factors of tension in the Taiwan Strait,” Wang said, according to The Diplomat.
United in Their Lust for War
House members who recently visited Taiwan urged the U.S. to expedite weapon shipments to Taiwan.
“The more that our colleagues visit, see Taiwan, the more they will understand the issues,” Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., said, according to The New York Times. He brushed off criticism of the visit and said, “To say it is provocative is to accept the CCP narrative, and I just don’t think it’s true.”
TRENDPOST: It is worth noting that Khanna should not be taken seriously when it comes to foreign relations. In October, he called Saudi Arabia a “third-rate power” as it considered slashing oil production output.
“We are the most powerful country in the world. I don’t know why we kowtow to them,” he said.
The mainstream Presstitutes try to frame any cadre of politicians who visit countries to promote instability as a “bipartisan delegation,” which is a flat-out lie. Khanna got a free trip to Taiwan—paid for by We the People of Slavelandia—and Rep. Mike Gallagher, a Republican, also visited the island. Politicians may differ on domestic issues, but when it comes to feeding the military-industrial complex, the U.S. is a one-party system.
Khanna was asked by NPR if he agreed with Biden, who said on several occasions that the U.S. would intervene militarily if China invaded.
He said the U.S. should “stick to President Carter’s formulation of the one-China policy and the Taiwan Relation Act, and that is that the United States would provide assistance in the support of Taiwan if there was a violation by China of the peaceful status quo. What that support looks like, I think, is purposely ambiguous.”
The U.S. does not want to fight China over Taiwan, but is perfectly content with supporting Taiwan’s war effort in hopes to weaken Beijing, similar to the Ukraine War approach with Russia.
The traditional war hawks are out in the U.S. John Bolton, the national security adviser under President Donald Trump, said in a radio interview that he agreed with the decision to increase the number of U.S. troops on the island but thinks Washington should be “doing more.”
“I would homeport a couple of American naval vessels at Kaohsiung, Taiwan’s big harbor, and show the Chinese that we’re gonna be there training and assisting the Taiwanese against any possible Chinese attack,” he said.
The WSJ also framed its story to be anti-Chinese. The reporter said the troop increase comes in response to China’s People’s Liberation Army “increasingly engaging in aggressive maneuvers, sending planes and ships near Taiwan.”
There’s no mention of how the U.S. provokes China by sailing warships in the Taiwan Straits and visits to Taipei by members of Congress.
The biggest difference between a Draft in WWII and a Draft now, back then they wanted to go. Their families wanted them to go.