As President Joe Biden works to confront multiple threats to freedom around the world after botching the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and failing to dissuade Putin from invading Ukraine, he's sending more American service members to Taiwan in the face of escalating aggression from Beijing.
According to a dispatch on the development from The Wall Street Journal, the Biden administration is "markedly increasing the number of troops deployed to Taiwan, more than quadrupling the current number to bolster a training program for the island’s military amid a rising threat from China."
Via WSJ:
The U.S. plans to deploy between 100 and 200 troops to the island in the coming months, up from roughly 30 there a year ago, according to U.S. officials. The larger force will expand a training program the Pentagon has taken pains not to publicize as the U.S. works to provide Taipei with the capabilities it needs to defend itself without provoking Beijing.
The number of American troops, which has included special-operations forces and U.S. Marines, has fluctuated by a handful during the past few years, according to Defense Department data. The planned increase would be the largest deployment of forces in decades by the U.S. on Taiwan, as the two draw closer to counter China’s growing military power.
The increased U.S. presence in Taiwan is "part of a gathering U.S. push to help a close partner prepare to thwart a possible invasion by China," something Biden administration hopes — if not needs — to succeed at after multiple embarrassments on the world stage. It is also something that the Biden administration has not managed to do thus far elsewhere.
Afghanistan wouldn't quickly fall to the Taliban, Biden and his aides insisted. And then it did. Biden and his administration thought they could convince Putin not to invade Ukraine, but then Russia did. Now, Biden is hoping to keep China from sniffing the blood of American weakness in the water.
Should the China-Taiwan situation go the same way other foreign fracases Biden's been involved in, the president hasn't been able to consistently express the United States' position. In a September interview on "60 Minutes," Biden declared that "yes," U.S. forces would defend Taiwan if China attacked.
In May, Biden also said "yes," the U.S. military would get involved to defend Taiwan against China. In both instances, the White House had to do its usual routine of contradicting what the commander in chief said and reiterating that the U.S. policy remained unchanged: we will provide support and training for Taiwan but will not fight against China on behalf of Taiwan.
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