The US marines and special forces have been secretly training Taiwanese troops for a year as the China threat to the island nation mounts.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that military trainers from the special forces and the marines have been training Taiwanese forces. The trainers had been sent by the Trump administration in 2020 but definitive news has trickled only now.

The news about the presence of American forces comes at a time when tensions between neighbours China and Taiwan have risen sharply. Beijing has been repeatedly violating the air space of Taiwan while the latter has reached out to the US and Japan for security support fearing an invasion by China.

Recently, Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen had said that Taiwan will “do whatever it takes to defend its freedom and democratic way of life. Taiwan does not seek military confrontation,” she told a security forum in Taipei.

The presence of US troops had been reported earlier in November 2020 but had been dismissed by the US. However, the Taiwan Navy Command did say at the time that a “routine Taiwan-US military exchange and cooperation training”, is taking place.

The tensions and the subsequent arms race in the region–right from the Korean peninsula to Australian shores–has put focus on American activity in an area, where the US is invested heavily with Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines and Australia in military and security terms.

The US also has deployed two of its aircraft carriers in the waters along with other allies like the UK–which has also deployed its Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier, France and Germany which have sent their navies in support of the US and to caution China.

The US has said that it will defend Taiwan. Japan too has been issuing statements that an attack on Taiwan by China may drag Japan into the conflict.

On its part China has always opposed American economic and military aid to Taiwan. Once again, the Chinese foreign ministry urged the US to stop providing military support to Taiwan. It said: “China will take all necessary steps to protect its sovereignty and territorial integrity".

Global Times, the Chinese State media organisation, justified Chinese aggression against Taiwan by saying that China is able to counter American moves of "playing the Taiwan card" by undertaking massive military actions.

It said: "the People's Liberation Army (PLA) has conducted massive military actions in the airspace near the island of Taiwan to deter secessionism and foreign forces, especially the US, who support the secessionist authorities in the island, and the latest remarks made by US senior officials and the secessionist Taiwan authorities showed that the tensions are unlikely to ease".  

The revelations about the US training Taiwanese forces comes amid a flurry of news related to Sino-American relations.

On Thursday an American nuclear submarine was hit by an unidentified object in the South China Sea (SCS)–which has become the latest theatre of competition between Beijing and Washington.

Separately, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) confirmed that it would be creating a new “mission centre” for intelligence gathering on China.
 

South Korea to launch indigenous submarine with ballistic missile capability

Taiwan works on self-reliance—acknowledges developing cruise missile to deter China

North Korea fires hypersonic missile, officially kicks off an arms race with Seoul and Tokyo