Posted on 05/31/2022 5:55:03 PM PDT by blam
Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen said on Tuesday that the United States is planning on “cooperation” between its National Guard and Taiwan’s military amid mounting threats from communist China.
Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen speaks at a rank conferral ceremony for military officials from the Army, Navy and Air Force, at the defence ministry in Taipei, Taiwan, on Dec. 28, 2021. (Annabelle Chih/Reuters)
The announcement comes as China, which wants to claim the self-ruled island as its own, has stepped up its military harassment of Taiwan in recent years.
Last week, China’s military organized military drills in the sea and air spaces surrounding Taiwan, a move it described as a “solemn warning” to Washington against its “collusion” with the liberal democratic island.
Col. Shi Yi, a spokesperson for the Eastern Theater Command of the People’s Liberation Army, said the regime’s military conducted “multi-service joint combat readiness patrol” and “actual combat drills” near Taiwan, according to a May 25 statement.
The warning came after U.S. President Joe Biden angered the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in Beijing when he said in a May 23 statement that America would intervene militarily to defend Taiwan if it was attacked, stating that it was the “commitment we made.”
U.S. officials said there had been no change to the longstanding U.S. policy toward Taiwan known as “strategic ambiguity” under which the administration has remained intentionally ambiguous on the subject of whether the United States would defend Taiwan, should it be invaded by the CCP.
President Tsai Ing-wen met with visiting U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) at her office in Taipei this week, and noted that Duckworth was one of the main sponsors of the Taiwan Partnership Act, aimed at developing a partnership between the National Guard and Taiwan as a means of maintaining a sufficient self-defense capability.
The Act has received bipartisan support in the U.S. Congress but has yet to become law.
“As a result, the U.S. Department of Defense is now proactively planning cooperation between the U.S. National Guard and Taiwan’s defence forces,” Tsai said, without providing further details.
“We look forward to closer and deeper Taiwan-U.S. cooperation on matters of regional security,” Tsai added.
Duckworth and 51 other senators sent a letter to Biden in mid-May, calling for Taiwan to be included in the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework.
Australia, Brunei, India, Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam have signed up to be part of the IPEF initiative, however, Taiwan was not included in the IPEF last week.
Tsai said on Tuesday that the island will keep expressing its willingness to participate.
“In the near future, we look forward to Taiwan and the United States working together in taking new steps to develop concrete plans that further deepen our economic partnership.”
During Duckworth’s visit to Taiwan, dozens of Chinese warplanes entered its air defense zone and were scrambled by Taiwan’s military jets.
WTF?
Ntional Guard is for OUR nation!
Correct NG is for our nation. If Taiwan goes down forget about chips for anything we make. Do you want china to be in control of a major supplier of chips to us?
This makes no sense.
If they’re smart their chip companies will move their HQ’s here pronto. All their kids too.
TSMC And Intel Are In A Mad Dash To Hire Semiconductor Technicians For Their New Plants In Arizona
All vital things should be sourced domestically.
The Founders believed in state-based militia. That militia has morphed into today’s National Guard. The Founders certainly did not expect state militias to deploy to places like Taiwan, Iraq, etc.
But, hey. What do the Founders know? Today’s globalists (D and R alike) are so much smarter.
Another “Global Force for Good”.
China already is in control of a lot of strategic resources.
Chips aint gonna be the biggest problem.
no
No
NO
HELL NO
What the he’ll are they thinking ?
They
have perverted
every thing
from its original purpose and intent and job function
in the whole freaking country.
N
O
.
“All vital things should be sourced domestically”.
Absolutely! So many critical/essential things being made overseas is insanity.
I read a story about our medicine that is being made in China and India. The Quality control in China is almost non-existent and India is not much better.
I'll second that. The National Guard is not a ready force for combat. It is a source for equipment if the government raids the armories.
You may be being sarcastic but it is a great program for the guard and the supported countries.
The national guard has had these training partnerships with friendly nations for decades.
Ukrainian military was part of the partnership program with the Florida Guard. FANG infantry is a kick ass group.
Jordan’s partner at one time was the Colorado guard.
https://www.nationalguard.mil/Portals/31/Documents/J-5/InternationalAffairs/StatePartnershipProgram/State-Partnership-Program-101-Brief-(Jan-2022).pdf
Good training and team building with foreign partners.
The national guard was one of the lead trainers for the javelin missile systems the Ukrainians are using to kick the Russians.
They also taught infantry tactics to UKR to good effect that the Russians seem to have forgotten in the first months of the war.
During the Trump years, Taiwan Semiconductor announced their plans to build a $15 billion semiconductor plant in Arizona.
About a year again, Taiwan Semiconductor upped their investment to $25 billion.
Intel is building a huge plant in Arizona, too.
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