Presence of US Green Berets in Taiwan’s Outer Islands signals expansion of military cooperation: experts | Green Berets in Taiwan | United States and Taiwan | China vs USA

In a recent strategic development in the Taiwan Strait, US forces are now stationed on the frontline Taiwanese islands of Kinmen and Penghu, according to Taiwanese Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng.

Before presenting a report on Chinese military activities on March 14 at the Taiwan legislature’s Foreign and National Defense Committee, Mr. Chiu interacted with the press and confirmed that U.S. Army Green Berets are permanently stationed in Taiwanese army amphibious command in Kinmen and Penghu, according to CNA, Taiwan’s national news last Thursday.

Experts called the Special Forces presence an expansion of military cooperation between traditional allies – the United States and Taiwan – and said the development shows that US forces are present on Taiwan’s front line on a more or less constant basis, with the United States finally doing what is necessary to free Taiwan from strategic isolation.

“The media reported that the U.S. Army [Forças Especiais] appeared on the remote islands, indicating that the scope of military cooperation between Taiwan and the United States has gradually expanded from maritime and air cooperation to land operations on offshore islands,” Ming-Shih Shen, Director of National Security Research at the National Defense Institute and Taipei Security Research, he told The Epoch Times in an email.

Kinmen is just over a kilometer away from China at its narrowest point, while the Penghu archipelago is about 30 kilometers west of Taiwan. Both outlying islands constitute an important stretch of Taiwan’s frontline with China.

Satoru Nagao, a nonresident fellow at the Washington-based Hudson Institute, told The Epoch Times that the constant presence of U.S. forces on Taiwan’s frontline islands will make it more difficult for China to attack those islands.

“[A] Recent situation indicates that China is trying to attack Kinmen Island. In recent years, China has also modernized its military forces at a rapid pace and the military balance has changed. Therefore, there is a real possibility that China will attack Taiwan using military forces if it manages to win,” Nagao said.

China watchers have noted that Chinese leader Xi Jinping needs an “honorable achievement” that could legitimize his fourth term in office before 2028. That is why many experts have warned of an imminent invasion of Taiwan, including the recently confirmed head of China Command. US Indo-Pacific Admiral Samuel Paparo and CIA Director William Burns.

The admiral told a defense department meeting in February that Chinese actions are “raising the alert threshold” to the point where China could quickly launch a surprise offensive from military exercises.

Burns told CBS last month that, according to US intelligence, Xi ordered the Chinese military to be ready for an invasion of Taiwan by 2027.

However, the presence of US forces in Kinmen and Penghu changes the equation, according to Nagao.

In this geopolitical context, Mr. Chiu’s confirmation to the media that US forces are close to the Chinese coast is also tactically timed, Nagao said.

“This information is released to indicate that China’s attack on Kinmen could escalate into a US-China war. There is a possibility that the Taiwanese side [queira] deter China by revealing this news,” Nagao said.

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A tourist attraction is seen along Lieyu Beach near Kinmen Island in Taiwan on February 04, 2021. Lieyu is an outlying island of Kinmen, an island in the Taiwan Strait that is part of the territory of Taiwan and so close to China that the deep-water port of Xiamen, one of China’s largest, is less than five kilometers away across the sea. (An Rong Xu/Getty Images)

Building military capabilities

Chiu said U.S. forces on the islands are involved in training and conducting regular exercises with Taiwanese special forces. Military exchange involves mutual observation, learning strengths and improving weaknesses, he said.

Taiwan’s military “may have some blind spots and deficiencies, and therefore it is important to communicate with others who are friendly to us, whether teams, groups or countries,” Chiu said, according to the Taiwanese media.

Grant Newsham, a retired U.S. Marine colonel and senior fellow at the Japan Forum for Strategic Studies, told The Epoch Times via email that daily contact with U.S. Special Forces will have a beneficial effect on Taiwan’s military capabilities.

“And don’t forget the psychological effect of Taiwan (both its military and civilian population) having US forces finally treat them as friends. It boosts morale — and also gives some substance to promises of U.S. support — that ring hollow, and have done so for a long time,” said Newsham, author of the recently released book “When China Strikes: A Warning to America.”

“Are Special Forces a kind of ‘trap’? Maybe so,” he said.

America’s Special Forces, also known as the Green Berets, are the United States’ premier special operations force – they specialize in unconventional warfare, counterterrorism, foreign internal defense, reconnaissance, direct action, hostage rescue and other strategic missions.

However, they are not intended for a military offensive against China, according to Nagao.

The role of the Green Berets in Taiwan is not combat. “Its main role is to support local armed forces to train and organize themselves well. In this case, they are training Taiwan’s defense forces,” Nagao said, adding that the presence of the Green Berets does not constitute a direct US military intervention.

The presence of the Green Berets also means that Taiwan values ​​the importance of special operations in ground action, an importance that is increasing daily, Shen said.

In the American concept of multi-domain operations, it is very important to have guerrillas or special operations forces behind enemy lines, Shen noted. “In addition to offshore operations on islands, whether it is maritime guerrilla warfare, urban guerrilla warfare, mountain guerrilla warfare, etc., they all require the assistance and training of special operations forces.”

Newsham said small Special Forces teams have been training with Taiwanese forces for several years, but not on this scale and regularity — and not on Kinmen and other offshore islands.

“Taiwan Army units are training in Michigan with U.S. Army National Guard units. And this is probably more important than the Special Forces in Kinmen,” he said.

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A Taiwanese naval officer stands behind barbed wire in Liaolo Bay on Kinmen Island on the front line on January 26, 2016. (Sam Yeh/AFP via Getty Images)

Breaking Taiwan’s isolation

The presence of US forces on the frontline islands has an influence on Taiwan’s presence at the global geopolitical forefront, according to experts, and is therefore of strategic interest.

“It’s good to see that Americans are finally doing what is necessary to free Taiwan from 40 years of isolation when it comes to military-to-military engagement,” Newsham said. Taiwan’s unique situation “has left Taiwanese forces in a sort of time warp and not developed the necessary capabilities that a modern army needs to have,” he said.

The question, he added, is not whether US Special Forces have a base on Kinmen, but rather whether they have a presence on the island on a more or less constant basis.

However, because the United States has not officially announced the presence of the Green Berets in Kinmen and Penghu, Mr. Nagao called it a “covert operation.” The discreet presence indicates the sensitivity of US policy toward Taiwan, he emphasized.

“The US respects the ‘one China policy’ which is that Taiwan is part of China,” Nagao said, although the policy is China’s policy and not US policy. Thus, “the US government does not want to announce the presence of US forces in Taiwan as a formal intervention [neste] China-Taiwan conflict.”

At the same time, in addition to its goal of defending Taiwan, the United States needs Taiwan as part of its strategy to combat China, Nagao said. Taiwan is in strategic proximity to China’s coastal cities that are also of key economic interest to China.

“The US needs to respect China’s opinion to avoid escalation, but the US must defend Taiwan,” he said. Revealing the US presence in Taiwan through social media, rather than through a government statement, sends a “balanced message.”

Through cooperative training with the United States, Shen said, Taiwan can understand international trends and development priorities of joint operations, which is very important for improving the training concepts and culture of Taiwan’s troops.

“Of course, more importantly, it can lay the foundation for future US-Taiwan alliance operations,” he said.

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