Taiwan, US to 'bolster military exchanges' amid tensions with China

Taiwan's president signing one has said Taipei will boost military exchanges with the United States at a time when tensions with Beijing remain high the cooperation with the United States has picked up base, especially since the start of the Ukraine war and renewed concerns over the threat of an invasion from China always a well-traveled route traffic between Washington 

DC and Taipei have been especially heavy in recent months last week the latest group of U.S lawmakers visited the island sparking Fury in Beijing China which claims Taiwan as part of its territory and is vowed to seize it one day and opposes any official exchanges with the Democracy last year Nancy Pelosi then speaker of the U.S House of 

Representatives chose to visit Taiwan her successor Kevin McCarthy is also reportedly planning a similar trip Washington diplomatically recognizes Beijing over Taipei but as the self-governing Island's most important International benefactor and supports Taiwan's right to decide its own future support that's becoming more vocal if there is crisis in Taiwan as a result of China's aggression in some fashion 

uh that would have I think disastrous consequences for the world economy and for countries around the world and that's the message too that Beijing is hearing increases that support also increasingly means military backing up to 500 Taiwanese troops are heading to the U.S for training while the Wall Street Journal reports that the Pentagon will deploy up to 

200 American trainers to the island in the coming months Taiwan and the United States continue to bolster military exchanges and will cooperate even more actively to confront Global challenges such as authoritarian expansionism and climate change the situation has intensified again since Russia's invasion of Ukraine the U.S believes China is gearing up to offer military support to Russia 

and suggests Beijing is emboldened by the Russian invasion to step up its efforts to seize Taiwan militarily Lincoln canceled a high-stakes Beijing trip aimed at easing U.S China relations after an apparent Chinese spy balloon sailed across American Skies the channels between the U.S and Taiwan may be busy but the communication lines of Beijing are in a sorry 

state all right let's get more context on this from William Yang in DW's Taipei Bureau William let's first talk about reports that Taiwan will send around 500 troops to the U.S for training later this year why so many I think this is the uh expansion and deepening of the military exchanges that we have seen over the last 

few years and the Taiwanese government specifically said uh sending the Battalion level of the Taiwan military 2 U.S for the training is not only just to familiar themselves with the tactics but at the same time they are going to have a deepened knowledge about actually how to operate on the battlefield and also at the same time learn 

from the experiences of the Americans in getting assistance of actually accumulating a lot more combat ready strategies that they can deploy and use in the case of a potential conflict and speaking of conflicts the Ukraine conflict the Ukraine war has been closely followed in Taipei as an example of potentially how to stand up to a bigger and 

more powerful adversary has it radically altered and impacted taiwan's plans to defend itself against a possible Chinese invasion exactly uh at the end of last year the Taiwanese government revealed a very con comprehensive reform of Taiwan's military service not only switching and reversing the four-month compulsory military service back to one year but at the same time uh enhancing 

the money and salaries that the uh both the compulsory military service Personnel will earn but also for professional military members they will even enhance the monthly salary and also there are more detailed plans of uh strengthening and also beefing up the training content because uh in the past a lot of the criticism has been the fact that 

the training itself and the content of the training has been focusing way too much on very limited and non-combat related content and materials the right now the new program and the new strategy is focusing more on getting more soldiers is ready for combat situations speaking of this training content I mean there are also announcements that the US 

will increase the number of troops it has on the island to train Taiwanese forces and through all of this I'm wondering if Taiwan is clear on where the U.S stands when it comes to actually defending Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion I think Taiwan is getting a very clear signal from Washington because uh during the 

latest report from Wall Street Journal we learned that the US is really trying to ensure that Taiwan's soldier in Taiwan's military has the capability to really get used to all the new programs and platforms and weapons that are going Taiwan has purchased from the United States and that's the main purpose of increasing the number of U.S 

troops basis in Taiwan they are going to be here to train and also get the Taiwanese military up to speed with all these new uh military weapons and at the same time I think this is just showing the fact that the US wants Taiwan to have the capability to really function and operate these new military weapons 

and at the same time it is in line with the urge of Taiwan adopting more asymmetrical capability and also becoming you know turning Taiwan into a porcupine to be able to strengthen its defense in uh at the same time deter China from even taking the first step of invasion and what about China's view William Beijing clearly isn't 

pleased with all this military cooperation with the United States but is that a risk that Taipei is prepared to take I think the Taiwanese government has been repeatedly making this signal that Taiwan is not going to shy away from a conflict when the invasion is being initiated by Beijing but at the same time Taiwan is not adopting 

and beefing up its military budget and also transforming its military training to try to invite a war rather it is just a positive and necessary step for Taiwan to strengthen its defense capabilities after years of not making much progress in terms of taiwan's defense capability and this is a step in the right direction from not only just 

Taiwan but also from Regional allies like Japan and the United States perspective and they are trying to engage Taiwan more in terms of defense dialogues and at the same time the bilateral exchanges on at the military level okay William just stay on the line let's hear what the opposition in Taiwan thinks about these growing U.S Taiwan exchanges 

the following sound bites are from the opposition km um we welcome U.S military assistance and training to help Taiwan but we don't need to make any big deal out of this news look at the numbers boosting the number of U.S military personnel three or four times in Taiwan from the original 40 to more than a hundred do 

you really think it would make a big difference I don't think so the U.S sending more troops and asking ours to go to the US for training shows that the situation across the Taiwan Straits is indeed perilous if it wasn't the US would not be doing this why are we in danger because we've become a pawn in 

the conflict between China and the US film your other sound bites there are these sentiments the oppositions alone or do they represent a considerable view in Taiwan's population I think these views represent a certain faction inside Taiwanese Society even though we are seeing the number imposed suggesting that more and more people are willing to fight for 

Taiwan if a conflict broke out with China but at the same time there are people who I've been talking to in recent months and weeks saying that at the end of the day maintaining peace and stability across Taiwan street is still their top priority and they are concerned about the moves and deepened ties between the US 

and Taiwan in on the military front and also the uh you know what these kind of uh gestures and news are going to send signals to Beijing and how Beijing is possibly going to respond so clearly these are not only uh you know restricted to the opposition politicians that we her but at the same time they they 

are being shared among Taiwanese population as well there are also reports that U.S House speaker Kevin McCarthy is planning to visit Taiwan you talked about sending signals to Beijing is Taipei open to such a visit I think the context of this visit compared to last uh August visit by the former house Speaker Nancy Pelosi is very different 

we are in a lead up to the presidential election in the January of 2024 so a potential McCarthy visit is going to have a huge impact on domestic politics this year and uh how that's going to affect the uh you know political landscape here is uh on predicted right now but at the same time we know that 

for the ruling party it could play into their advantage and for the opposition party uh that is going to add a lot more uncertainty in terms of how people are going to feel about the uh threats coming from China so I think such a visit is going to have a huge impact on the election that we're going 

to see in January 2024. overall William Will growing U.S Taiwan military exchanges keep Taiwan more safe or less so we focus on the content and the actual uh you know practical side of the exchange and the purpose of these uh trainings it is going to help Taiwan overall to enhance its defense capabilities and hosts also help to 

push Taiwan to really overall spend more of its budget and resources on the necessary aspects of its military and also National Defense but if you know we start to let the discussion about the political implication of these uh trainings and exchanges to dominate the overall dialogue and also the focus of this training then perhaps it's going to 

start to create some misleading and also misconception inside the Civil Society so I think it's very important for the government to try to focus the purpose of the training on what is actually going to help Taiwan William Yang in Taipei always a pleasure talking to you thank you so much for that context thank you