Taiwan’s main political parties appear split over President Tsai Ing-wen’s announcement that US troops are in Taiwan, training Taiwan’s military. Tsai made the announcement during an interview with CNN, published on CNN’s website Thursday.
Tsai did not say how big the US military’s presence in Taiwan is, but did say that there are fewer US troops in Taiwan than most think. Since the interview, Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng has said that this US presence is not a permanent garrison, and that US troops are not being stationed in Taiwan.
Lawmaker Chen I-hsin of the opposition KMT says he believes that US-Taiwan military cooperation has been going on for some time. But he says he thinks President Tsai’s decision to openly acknowledge that US troops are in Taiwan may have been a serious indiscretion on her part. He says that former President Ma Ying-jeou, also of the KMT, never made such information public.
Lawmaker Chao Tien-Lin of President Tsai’s DPP, meanwhile, has backed Tsai’s decision to make the US presence in Taiwan publicly known. Chao says that Tsai was only speaking in line with what US President Joe Biden has already said. Chao says that the US military’s training of Taiwanese forces is simply a reiteration of the US and Taiwan’s determination to uphold peace in the surrounding region.