The Wall Street Journal: “American forces have been in Taiwan for a year to prepare the defense of Taipei from a Chinese invasion and teach them” the strategy of the porcupine “”. Beijing’s reaction: “Withdraw from there”
FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT
BEIJING— Two dozen US Special Forces raiders and a small contingent of Marines have been deployed to Taiwan
to train the Taipei army to defend itself in the event of a Chinese attack
.
They revealed it Pentagon sources to the American press, significantly immediately after the air power show by Beijing, which between 1 and 4 October he flew 150 aircraft around the “rebel” island, between fighters and bombers.
The secret operation (not so much) has been going on for a long time, at least a year. News broke out in the Taipei press in late 2020, after photos of American Green Berets on the island and even the US Army’s 1st Special Forces Group had produced a promotional video of its Taiwanese activities, withdrawn when it attracted too much attention.
According to Washington sources, who spoke to the Wall Street Journal, American Special Forces raiders athey train small Taiwanese land units for resistance actions and the Marines teach you how to harness the potential of light and fast boats that could hinder a landing attempt by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army.
The Pentagon spokesman did not deny the news: “I have no comments to make on specific operations, but I want to emphasize that our support for Taiwan and our defense relations on the island align with the threat from the People’s Republic of China. We ask Beijing to respect its commitments for a peaceful settlement of disputes ”.
The words of the US defense official make us understand the political objective of spreading the news: to signal that the United States is always close, even militarily, to Taiwanese democracy, despite formally recognizing only the Beijing government and having accepted in the 1970s the principle that c ‘is “one China” (the communist one).
Two dozen Navy Seals and a small department of Marine specialists do not naturally change the situation in the theater of operations and the secret was not so secret. Surely Chinese military intelligence had not escaped the images of American commandos in training on the beaches of Taiwan.
But, as well as from a political point of view, the presence of American military instructors has a strategic value. Washington has long been urging Taiwanese friends not to rely solely on traditional defense tactics, especially the air force. The Pentagon fears that Taiwanese airports and planes would be wiped out by the Chinese in the first massive attack.
A battle plan bequeathed by the advisers of the Trump administration asks Taipei to prepare the “strategy of the porcupine “: it would mean closing up like a hedgehog, exploiting the difficulties of the enemy, rather than unreasonably trying to match the air and naval strength. The Taiwanese porcupine should above all make the Chinese understand that they are able to slow down and make the invasion very bloody.
Washington’s Strategic Ambiguity promises that at that point American reinforcements would arrive with their aircraft carriers, nuclear submarines and in the extreme case divisions of Marines. “Better to develop less expensive but lethal systems” of contrast, the report reads. Hence, more space for anti-ship missiles, “smart” mines, small and fast boats that could inflict heavy losses on the invasion fleet, well-trained ground forces in prolonged combat.
The small American contingent present on a rotating basis in Taiwan is doing exactly this: trains the Taiwanese in the «porcupine strategy“. The goal is to make Beijing understand that the conquest of Taiwan would turn into hell. “I’m not ruling out that the Chinese already knew and were informed of the American presence on the island,” says Bonnie Glaser, director of the Asia Program at the German Marshall Fund. “But making the operation public will push the Chinese to react and they will probably do so by increasing the pressure on Taipei, but this time with more destabilizing actions than flying their planes around the island.” In short, Washington and Beijing are playing poker and Taiwan is at stake.
The foreign spokesman for Beijing commented on the news on the presence of American special forces on the island requesting its withdrawal and assuring that “China will take all necessary measures to safeguard its sovereignty and territorial integrity”. At the moment, a routine response, the minimum wage for a spokesperson.
October 8, 2021 (change October 8, 2021 | 11:38)
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