Taiwan and US are playing dangerous game off Quemoy
- Stationing elite US troops like Green Berets barely 5km from southeastern coast of mainland China is direct provocation, not an attempt to preserve status quo in Taiwan Strait
Taiwan-controlled Quemoy islands have become politically explosive recently. And so, on Sunday, to add fuel to the flame, Taiwan’s official Central News Agency ran a story claiming mainland China was trying to expand its sovereignty claims by establishing “de facto control” over the maritime area.
“China is repeatedly trespassing in the waters surrounding Taiwan-held Quemoy in a bid to establish ‘de facto’ jurisdictional control of the area and bolster its sovereignty claims,” it said.
That has been pretty much the consensus narrative for Taiwan and its Western friends about recent confrontations around the outlying islands within spitting distance from the mainland shores. The latest brush involved several Chinese mainland coastguard ships reportedly entering the area at the weekend.
Tensions flared last month after two mainland fishermen drowned while their boat was being pursued by Taiwanese coastguard vessels. A more amiable incident came last week when the two sides launched a joint rescue mission after a Chinese fishing vessel capsized near Quemoy, also known as Kinmen.
The area is always going to be politically and militarily sensitive as Quemoy is less than 5km off the mainland’s southeast coast.
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But why all these mutually provocative activities now?
What is almost always left unreported is that US Army special forces called the Green Berets are now stationed in amphibious command centres on outlying islands such as Quemoy and Penghu, and that they train and conduct joint exercises with their Taiwanese military counterparts. This, according to Taiwan media reports.
Now imagine how Washington would react if China had permanently stationed some of its most elite troops a couple of kilometres from Hawaii, Guam or worse, the continental United States. The Pentagon would probably deploy more than a few coastguard vessels as a response.
The Green Berets’ presence only recently came to light, at least to the public. When asked about it, Taiwanese Defence Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng gave an indirect answer this month at the Legislative Yuan’s foreign and national defence committee.
“[There] may have some blind spots and shortcomings and therefore it is important to communicate with others who are friendly to us, whether they are teams, groups, or countries,” said Chiu, who once claimed that the mainland could invade by next year.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the committee meeting, he described those “military exchanges” as taking place on “a regular basis” and involving “mutual observation, learning strengths, and addressing weaknesses.” They go, he said, beyond the scope of weapon sales and purchases between Taiwan and the US.
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In response to the weekend incident, a US State Department spokesman said Washington was urging all parties to exercise restraint and refrain from unilaterally changing the “status quo”.
“Maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait is in line with our [the US’] consistent interests and is crucial to regional and global security and prosperity,” the spokesman said.
The statement is just laughable. So, after stationing special forces just off the coast of Fujian, apparently for good, the US claims it wants to preserve the status quo!
In one of her many deliberately provocative acts during her eight-year-long tenure, retiring President Tsai Ing-wen was the first island leader to acknowledge the presence of US troops. The Green Berets add to the provocation now not only because they are among the US military’s most elite troops, but also because they are said to be stationed in Taiwan permanently, rather than on a rotational or contingent basis. Seen in this light, Beijing has been remarkably restrained.
