A soldier from the Army Training North Joint Test Center (North Test Center) in Hsinchu Hukou, Taiwan, broke the news in April in the association ” Kaobei Chief ” that the business volume had increased greatly because of the arrival of the U.S. military, so busy that “there is no lunch break”, the source added: “Obviously paying the same money, why the U.S. military can drink bottled milk, our soldiers have to drink powdered milk?”
In response to this, the Taiwan Army Command stated on May 16 that it “will not comment.” However, “United Daily News” quoted officers and soldiers from the unnamed base as saying that it confirmed that a large number of American officers and soldiers were stationed at the North Test Center of Taiwan.
The “United Daily News” reported that the mission of the US Army Security Cooperation Brigade (SFAB) stationed earlier included observing the testing conditions of the bases under the Taiwan Army’s joint arms battalion and assisting in the guidance of combat training.
According to reports, the case was jointly promoted by the Taiwan Army Education and Standards Department and the U.S. Pacific Command, and was led by Jing Yaozong, deputy commander of the Education and Standards Department who was a former Saudi Arabian military attache. The month before Taiwan’s COVID-19 pandemic has not yet intensified, a large number of U.S. security cooperation brigade officers and soldiers stationed at the North Test Center, organized into various branches, as consultants, observe the joint arms battalions under the base to perform ground operations and air-sea communications-related activities, and implement guidance and recommendations.
The Taiwan Army’s joint arms battalion is newly organized into naval and air force liaison officers, air defense platoons and reconnaissance and search platoons that use drones. However, many units such as drones and shoulder-fired missiles are still organized and unarmed. And in addition to the movement speed of ground forces, the research and judgment of whether the air assistance application and the combat zone are smoothly communicated is the focus of the US military’s observation. This is the first time the US military has participated in the operation of the joint barracks of Taiwan. Regarding whether the US military will stay until July to participate in Taiwan’s Han Kuang No. 37 exercise, the Taiwanese military is unwilling to confirm.
Relevant U.S. troops were stationed in Afghanistan
The U.S. Army has five active “security cooperation brigades” and an additional security brigade in the National Guard. Each brigade has about 600 officers and soldiers. In the past, the rotation missions focused on counterinsurgency missions in Afghanistan. Now that the US military has withdrawn from Afghanistan, the focus of security cooperation brigades training has shifted to the Indo-Pacific region.
According to the recent disclosure on the Facebook page of the U.S. Army’s 5th SFAB, the brigade has been assigned to the Indo-Pacific Command from March and will continue to travel to Indonesia and the Philippines in April and May to assist the local armies and other partners to “learn new combat strategies, techniques and procedures.”
The report quoted Taiwanese officials as saying that the US Army officers and soldiers came to Taiwan as consultants, and were quarantined for 14 days according to regulations. They are usually active in the camp and ordered not to go out easily; while the security cooperation brigade comes to Taiwan with special funding subsidies as well as US military staples and non-staple food at Taiwan’s costs. And the amount is different from that of the Taiwan military, and it is enough to support the canned “cold milk” for breakfast; while Taiwan’s grassroots troops require a large amount of milk, which are all made with qualified milk powder and hot water, of which the quality meets delicious and safety standards.
The US “Stars and Stripes” website reported on November 20 last year that the US Army Security Brigade will begin stationing in the Indo-Pacific region, and the U.S. Army’s Fifth Security Cooperation Brigade was conducting rotational training in preparation for providing advisory support to partners in the Indian Ocean and Pacific regions, while the U.S. Army hopes to gain a foothold in the Indo-Pacific region to counter the influence of mainland China.
Why is the U.S. playing with fire?
The US military’s entry into Taiwan has violated the three Sino-US joint communiqués, touched China’s bottom line, and met one of the rumored six conditions for the mainland China to unify Taiwan by force: namely, Taiwan’s deployment of foreign troops, the other five being Taiwan’s blatant declaration of independence, Taiwan’s conduct of an independence referendum, Taiwan’s restart of nuclear weapons research and development, Taiwan army’s military attack on the mainland, and large-scale unrest in Taiwan, which were summarized by Chinese military theorist Professor Yang Chengjun in accordance with China’s Anti-Secession Law.
This, coupled with U.S. President Joe Biden’s continuation of Donald Trump’s hard-line policy toward China, could force the Chinese Communist Party to decide to occupy Taiwan by force.
At present, the Chinese military already possesses superior military strength inside the first island chain. In recent years, the United States has confirmed that it cannot defeat the Chinese military inside the first island chain in multiple war games. Therefore, the massive US military’s entry into Taiwan is purely an act of playing with fire.
