Taiwan confirms U.S. military presence, says defending island is vital for democracy

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen confirmed that American troops person been grooming the Taiwanese military, arsenic tensions betwixt Beijing and the self-governing land intensify implicit China’s fears of Taipei’s evolving narration with Washington.

Tsai, who has ruled Taiwan arsenic caput of the Democratic Progressive Party since 2016, told CNN successful an interrogation published connected Thursday that U.S. subject unit were successful Taiwan arsenic portion of a grooming program. She declined to springiness details of the numbers of soldiers involved.

The uncommon nationalist acknowledgment, which comes aft the Wall Street Journal reported that Marines had been successful Taiwan for astatine slightest a year, drew an aggravated effect from the Chinese state-backed tabloid the Global Times, which accused Tsai of “pushing the mainland to determine to resoluteness the Taiwan question by force.”

The Chinese Communist Party has claimed Taiwan arsenic portion of its sovereign territory since 1949 erstwhile the Nationalist Kuomintang retreated to the land astir 100 miles from the seashore of southeastern Fujian province. Beijing regularly threatens to instrumentality the land by unit if Taiwan’s democratically elected authorities ever declares ineligible independence.

Beijing’s mistrust of Tsai, whose enactment historically supported ceremonial independence, has lone grown aft she won a 2nd word successful a landslide victory past year. Tsai maintains that she supports a continuation of the presumption quo successful Taipei’s narration with Beijing, reflecting her party’s authoritative presumption since 1999. But Chinese officials impeach her of supporting “separatists.”

Tsai’s interrogation remarks travel astatine an unusually fraught period adjacent for the typically tense narration betwixt Taipei and Beijing. Over China’s National Day vacation this month, the People’s Liberation Army sent a record number of combatant jets and bombers into Taiwan’s aerial defence recognition zone, drafting warnings from the United States.

That aforesaid week, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Tsai exchanged dueling speeches laying retired their visions for the aboriginal of Taiwan. While Xi promised that unification would “definitely beryllium achieved,” Tsai marked Taiwan’s National Day by responding that “nobody tin unit Taiwan to instrumentality the way China has laid retired for us.”

In her interview, Tsai framed the question of protecting Taiwan arsenic 1 of defending democracy. “If we fail, past that means radical that judge successful these values would uncertainty whether these are values that they [should] beryllium warring for,” she told CNN.

By openly emphasizing the spot of Taiwan’s ties with the United States, Tsai hopes to deter Beijing from aboriginal subject action, said Charles Chong-Han Wu, subordinate prof astatine the Department of Diplomacy, National Chengchi University. “It sends a awesome that Americans are down supporting us,” helium said. “The president saying it retired large makes it much strategical and credible.”

Wu added that Tsai appeared to beryllium taking vantage of an accidental to deter Beijing aft President Biden past week said that the United States would come to Taiwan’s defense if China attacked. “She wants to archer Beijing, ‘Don’t enactment rashly. America truly volition assistance us,’” helium said.

Many analysts believed Biden misspoke, due to the fact that his remarks appeared to beryllium astatine likelihood with a argumentation of “strategic ambiguity” which leaves it unclear whether the United States would intervene successful a conflict. The White House aboriginal clarified that U.S. argumentation had not changed. Still, Beijing responded with a informing to underestimate its resolve, adding that China has “no country for compromise” implicit Taiwan.