Taiwan's president confirms small number of U.S. troops training local forces on island
Last Updated Thursday, October 28, 2021 7:21AM EDT
"If we fail, then that means people that believe in these values would doubt whether these are values that they be fighting for." In her interview with CNN, Tsai became the first Taiwan President in decades to acknowledge the presence of US troops on the island for training purposes. The last official US garrison left in 1979, the year Washington switched formal diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing,though last year media reports hinted at small deployments.
But Tsai's presidency has been relentlessly attacked and ridiculed from across the Taiwan Strait --since Tsai took office, relations between Beijing and Taipei have fast deteriorated. It was a carefully executed show of force by the Chinese government -- straying into areas where it would provoke a response from Taiwan but not entering the island's airspace.
On Taiwan's National Day on October 10, in response to growing Chinese military action, President Tsai said Taiwan could not be forced to follow "the path China had laid out for it."Speaking to CNN Tuesday, Tsai called on regional democratic partners, including Japan, South Korea and Australia, to help support the island.
Tsai told CNN the government needed to better tailor its military to defend a small island, rather than a conventional fighting force. Japan's Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi told CNN in an interview in mid-September that "what's happening in Taiwan is directly linked to Japan," and Tokyo would respond to any threats to the security of trade routes in the region.
"Taiwan is not alone because we are a democracy, we respect freedom and we are peace lovers. And we share values with most of the countries in the region and geographically we are of strategic importance," she said, pointing to the island's leading role in the global semiconductor supply chain and adding regional powers had a "common interest" in keeping the island safe.
Tsai said it has long been the policy of all sides of Taiwan's politics for the island to take a greater role at the UN. She said she wasn't concerned about aggravating Beijing. At the same time, Xi's foreign policy goals have led to the promotion of fiercely nationalistic diplomats, known as "wolf warriors," inside the Foreign Ministry, who are willing to vocally defend China's positions of highly controversial and sensitive issues -- with Taiwan often being called the reddest of Beijing's "red lines."