US Sends Troops to Taiwan After General Threatens War with China by 2025

By Andre Damon
Global Research, February 27, 2023
World Socialist Web Site 23 February 2023

Url of this article:
https://www.globalresearch.ca/us-sends-troops-taiwan-after-general-threatens-war-china-2025/5810166

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The United States will quadruple the number of US forces stationed on Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory, in an effort to provoke a war with Beijing along the lines of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The United States is actively turning Taiwan into a military base just dozens of miles off the coast of mainland China, with the aim of goading China into invading the island, and painting the ensuing war as the result of “Chinese aggression.”

The announcement gives context to the Biden administration’s unprecedented decision to attack a Chinese research balloon that had been blown over the United States earlier this month, the first time that any aircraft had been shot down over US territory or its coastal waters.

The attack, and the media frenzy that preceded it, was used in an attempt to whip up public hysteria and fear of China, justifying a massive US military buildup on the other side of the world.

In January, Gen. Mike Minihan, head of Air Mobility Command, sent a letter to his subordinates stating, “My gut tells me we will fight in 2025,” and urging them to get their “personal affairs” in order in preparation for a conflict with China.

In both May and September of last year, US President Joe Biden categorically asserted the US would be willing to go to war with China if it invaded Taiwan.

The announcement of the troop surge follows the passage of the National Defense Authorization Act at the end of last year. It effectively rendered the US’s decades-old “One China policy,” under which Washington de facto recognized the Beijing regime as the sole government of all China, including Taiwan, a dead letter by sending direct military aide to Taipei.

Knowing it is acting without a mandate from the American population, the Biden administration is seeking to carry out the massive expansion of US troops on Taiwan with minimal public attention.

In a choreographed series of steps repeated any time the White House takes actions that move the world closer to nuclear annihilation, the White House leaked its plans to increase US troops on Taiwan to the press on Thursday, refused to comment on the initial reports, and will likely formally announce the moves in a “Friday night news dump” either the following day, or several weeks down the line.

In an article entitled “U.S. to Expand Troop Presence in Taiwan for Training Against China Threat,” the Wall Street Journal reported: “The U.S. 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.”

All factions of the US financial oligarchy are united behind preparations for a military conflict with China. On Wednesday, Republican Representative Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin, who chairs the House’s new select committee on China, declared himself “even more convinced that the time to arm Taiwan to the teeth was yesterday.”

The media is actively working to promote US war planning against China. Earlier this month, Chuck Todd, moderator of “Meet the Press,” asked Democratic Senator Cory Booker, “Are you going to be supporting whatever it takes to prepare for war with China over Taiwan? Do we need to do more to prepare for that potential?”

The Journal wrote that “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 Journal continued, “Beyond training on Taiwan, the Michigan National Guard is also training a contingent of the Taiwanese military, including during annual exercises with multiple countries at Camp Grayling in northern Michigan, according to people familiar with the training.”

The United States has seized upon the February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine to massively expand its defense spending, targeting China no less than Russia.

In December, the US House and Congress voted overwhelmingly to approve an $858 billion National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that is $45 billion larger than that requested by the White House, which was in turn larger than the request by the Pentagon.

The budget marks an eight percent increase over last year and a 30 percent increase in military spending over the 2016 Pentagon budget. The massive surge in military spending comes as the typical US household saw its real income fall by three percent in the past 12 months.

The bill increases funding for every single military department and weapons program. The US Navy will get $32 billion for new warships, including three Arleigh Burke-class destroyers and two Virginia-class nuclear submarines. And the Pentagon is authorized to purchase a further 36 F-35 aircraft, each costing approximately $89 million.

“This year’s NDAA takes concrete steps towards preparing for a future conflict with China by investing in American hard power, strengthening American posture in the Indo-Pacific, and supporting our allies,” Republican Representative Gallagher said.

The NDAA will upend Washington’s previous One China policy by providing $10 billion in direct military funding to Taiwan for the first time. The bill will also institute no-bid contracting, typically used only in wartime, allowing defense contractors to charge the US government whatever they want.

The bill transforms Taiwan into a frontline proxy for conflict with China, in a manner similar to the way Ukraine is serving as a US proxy for war with Russia. In a press statement, Gallagher praised the fact that the bill “provides similar drawdown authority to arm Taiwan as we have Ukraine.”

The uncontrolled US militarization of Taiwan and US preparations for war with China make clear the extent to which the US war with Russia over Ukraine, now over one year old, is metastasizing into a global military conflagration.

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