Politico | Lawmakers say they were in the dark on US troop deployment to Taiwan
- The comments follow a US media report that Marines and a special-ops unit have been ‘secretly’ training the island’s soldiers for a least a year
- The news comes amid increasingly aggressive actions by China, whose military flew near Taiwan for several days in a row over the past week
This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Quint Forgey on politico.com on October 7, 2021.
Two lawmakers on US national security committees – one a House Democrat, the other a Senate Republican – said on Thursday they were unaware of a US troop deployment in Taiwan where forces are reportedly helping train the island nation’s military.
The acknowledgements from congressman Ami Bera and Senator Thom Tillis, made during POLITICO’s inaugural Defence Forum, came hours after The Wall Street Journal reported that a US special-operations unit and a contingent of Marines have been operating in Taiwan for at least a year.
Asked whether he was informed by Pentagon officials about the US troop presence, Bera said, “not particularly this deployment”.
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Bera – a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the chair of its Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific, Central Asia and Non-proliferation – added, however: “I think we have special operators and others there, and we have in the past, that are there training this military [and] working with them.”
Tillis, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, also said Pentagon officials “did not make us specifically aware” of the US troop deployment in Taiwan.
