Taiwan has confirmed there are U.S. troops stationed on its islands in the Taiwan Strait on a permanent basis, including an island just over a mile off China's southeast coast.
The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) in 2023 paved the way for their arrival to conduct training programs for troops on Taiwan's front line.
China has vowed to someday annex democratic Taiwan, which it regards as a rogue province, despite the fact that the Chinese Communist Party government in Beijing has never ruled there. China has sharply increased military sorties and drills in and around the 90-mile-wide Taiwan Strait, prompting its neighbor to boost investment in defense.
Asked to confirm reports U.S. Army Green Special Forces, also known as Green Berets, were in Taiwan on a permanent basis, Taiwanese defense chief Chiu Kuo-cheng told reporters on March 14: "No matter the situation, there may be blind spots or shortcomings. So we need to communicate with our allies—whether it is a team, a group or a country."
"We can learn from each other to see what strengths we have. This is a fixed thing," he added.
In 2021, President Tsai Ing-wen revealed U.S. instructors were conducting occasional training with Taiwanese armed service members, though Chiu's statement is the first confirmation of the long-term nature of the activities.
Taiwan's Defense Ministry has refrained from commenting on specific reports, but said all foreign military exchanges follow an annual plan.
U.S. Army Green Berets from the 1st Special Forces Group are now permanently stationed at a pair of bases of the 101st Amphibious Reconnaissance Battalion, a Taiwanese army special operations force, according to Taiwan's United Daily News (UDN).
These instructors were sent to the outlying island counties of Penghu and Kinmen. At its closest point, Kinmen is just barely over a mile from Chinese shores.
The 1st Battalion of this Pacific-oriented Special Forces Group is forward-deployed in Okinawa, Japan, while the rest of the battalion is stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state.
The UDN previously reported there is also an American military presence in the northeast city of Taoyuan on Taiwan's main island. These service members are said to be providing specialist training on drone equipment Taiwan hopes to obtain for its elite Airborne Special Service Company.
The U.S. Army and Chinese Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to Newsweek's written request for comment.
The U.S. has maintained no official military presence in Taiwan since it pulled out in 1979 following the normalization of U.S.-China relations.
Officially, U.S.-Taiwan military exchanges, which have been indirectly acknowledged in the past, are handled by the de facto U.S. embassy, the American Institute in Taiwan.
Though the U.S. switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing, the U.S. remains Taiwan's largest arms supplier.
The 1979 Taiwan Relations Act commits Washington to providing Taipei with defensive weaponry and to resisting the use of "force or other forms of coercion that would jeopardize the security, or the social or economic system, of the people on Taiwan."
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Micah McCartney is a reporter for Newsweek based in Taipei, Taiwan. He covers U.S.-China relations, East Asian and Southeast Asian ... Read more
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