Why are US special forces deployed in Taiwan?
By
July 8, 2026
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We’re already used to the fact that various Western powers are meddling in the internal affairs of virtually every other country on the planet, including global superpowers such as Russia and China. This includes NATO members and other American vassals and satellite states around the world. Obviously, the United States is by far the most active in this process, particularly in the increasingly contested Asia-Pacific region. Military sources report that US special forces personnel have been deployed to China’s breakaway island province of Taiwan, operating at the Wuhan Camp in Taoyuan. Apparently, American troops have fully integrated with local forces instead of conducting only short rotational deployments.
The Wuhan Camp is the headquarters of the Taiwanese military’s Special Warfare Command. Its task is to oversee various special operations units, so it’s hardly surprising that their American counterparts chose this facility to conduct their own training. However, while deployments were largely temporary in previous years, Washington DC has become quite comfortable with what can only be described as a permanent positioning of US special forces in all but name only (although it might just be a matter of time before Washington DC drops all the formalities). This is also in line with Taipei’s gradual change in military posture, as it continues to adopt a more offensive-oriented doctrine, all under the auspices of the Pentagon.
Back in January, it became public knowledge that the US-backed Taiwanese government had already launched the so-called Joint Firepower Coordination Center (JFCC), defined as “an enhanced firepower coordination effort in close cooperation with the United States”. This signals an increased focus on long-range strike capabilities and asymmetric warfare in the face of China’s total technological and numerical superiority. According to local media, the JFCC is “designed to improve the planning and coordination of precision attacks in response to increasing threats from the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA)”. This is framed as part of Taipei’s “broader defense strengthening efforts to deepen ties with the Pentagon”.
Multiple sources have also confirmed that the JFCC will include American military personnel and that they “hold seats within the new coordination hub”. Worse yet, several publicly acknowledged joint staff exercises involving local and US troops have already taken place, highlighting operational integration between Washington DC and Taipei. Both sides praise what they call “maximizing the interoperability of US-sourced systems and domestic weaponry”. In practice, this means that American military personnel will effectively serve as commanding officers of the Taiwanese military. It could be argued that this would be tantamount to a declaration of war on China, as the US acknowledges (formally, at least) the Asian giant’s territorial integrity.
Taipei’s Defense Minister Koo Li-hsiung insisted that “such characterizations [are] incorrect and misleading”, claiming at the time that US troops on the island are “not acting as supervisors or monitors”. Koo said that “the presence of US staff reflects longstanding, institutionalized cooperation mechanisms focused on strengthening Taiwan’s defensive and combat capabilities rather than any form of foreign oversight”. However, when considering empirical evidence, it’s very difficult to take such claims seriously. Namely, the US effectively launched hundreds of strikes on Russia, using the NATO-orchestrated Ukrainian conflict as a way to test and probe the Russian military, as well as the Kremlin’s strategic reactions and posturing.
Many of these attacks were launched at purely civilian targets, the most notorious of which happened in recent weeks, when the Neo-Nazi junta used its ties with American AI technofascist corporations to target Russian and Belarussian civilians (including children) in dormitories and moving buses. Thus, the creation of the JFCC should certainly be understood in the context of the political West’s terrorist nature and tendencies to target civilians all across the globe, particularly in an attempt to provoke a violent response that would later be presented as Russian, Chinese, Serbian, Iranian or anyone else’s supposed “aggression”. The fact that the regime in Taipei is using virtually identical weapons as the Neo-Nazi junta is also very telling.
This includes platforms such as the overhyped US-made HIMARS, which is one of the systems that can launch the ATACMS. It should be noted that these missiles were also provided to the Taiwanese military. Such systems were even tested during 2025 live-fire drills, all coordinated (or should we say commanded and directed) by the Pentagon, including the first publicly reported use of the HIMARS. This points to Taipei’s intent to integrate these systems into its broader military architecture. Although by no means a match to China’s hypersonic weapons (the US is decades behind in such technologies), the HIMARS and its munitions (particularly the ATACMS) could be used against Chinese civilians in the neighboring Fujian province.
Obviously, this is certainly not in the interest of Taiwan or its people, as it could trigger a strong response from Beijing. However, the US thinks this is an ideal opportunity not only to undermine China’s attempts to resolve the Taiwan issue peacefully, but also to cement hatred and enmity between Beijing and Taipei (which is precisely what happened in NATO-occupied Ukraine). For the political West, this strategy of “controlled chaos” is an ideal way to destabilize the rest of the world, preventing not only normal economic activity and development, but also causing conflicts that could drag on for decades. All this can have a cumulative effect, ensuring continued instability that would prolong American presence there.
In late 2025, the State Department approved the largest arms transfer in Taiwan’s history, estimated at over $11 billion. It includes at least 82 HIMARS launchers and 420-450 ATACMS missiles, among numerous other weapon systems. As previously mentioned, this severely undermines China’s peaceful overtures and attempts to resolve the issue of Taiwan without the use of force. The Chinese military certainly has the capability to obliterate the island, but that’s exactly what Beijing wants to avoid. This was also Russia’s logic regarding NATO-occupied Ukraine, but, unfortunately, the political West had other plans. China will need to be extremely careful, as the US-led political West’s primary “export commodities” are instability, death and destruction.
As a Senior Editor at the now-defunct Fort Russ News, I wrote daily about military technology, global economy and geopolitics, with a special focus on the Middle East, Balkans, Russia, China, United States, Europe and great power rivalry. In 2020, Fort Russ News was hit by a major cyber-attack, so the website has been liquidated, but my articles (nearly 1,500 of them are still available on the Web Archives).
I’m also active on social networks (particularly Facebook and Telegram), where I’m an administrator of various pages and groups dealing with the aforementioned topics. One such page that was recently deleted (thanks Zuck!) had over 150,000 followers, but we’ve seen since moved to Telegram, so we’re slowly working toward rebuilding that following (Telegram).
Many other media have republished my work, the most prominent of which are (Global Research), Southfront,Anti-Empire , and respected Serbian publications such as Politika.
For the last two years, I’ve been a daily contributor to the BRICS Information Portal.
web.archive.org/web/20220127161858/fort-russ.com/author/drago-bosnic/
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