Flag over city
© ReutersTaiwan flag carried by helicopter over Taipei
Darren Beattie, a former White House speechwriter for 45th President Donald Trump, warned China on Thursday that the US would be prepared to shed blood to ensure that the "Rainbow Flag of Diversity" flies over Taiwan.

Beattie - a prominent critic of US foreign policy since his departure from the White House - posted the warning to Chinese President Xi Jinping on Twitter. He declared:
"Make no mistake Xi, Americans are prepared to spend whatever blood and treasure it takes to ensure that the Rainbow Flag of Diversity, and not the Chinese flag, will fly over Taiwan. Globalist American Empire would do so under the guise of 'freedom.'"
In a separate tweet, Beattie mocked self-proclaimed American patriots "who happen to sit on the board of a company that does a lot of defense contracts," but portray their anti-Chinese rhetoric as a selfless act of patriotism.

Beattie worked as a speechwriter for the White House between 2017 and 2018. In 2020, he was nominated by Trump to serve as a board member of the Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad.

Meanwhile, it was revealed by The Wall Street Journal on Thursday that US troops had been deployed in Taiwan for at least a year, where they had been training Taiwanese military forces - seemingly in preparation for a conflict with mainland China.

Many former members of the Trump administration have pushed for confrontation with China over Taiwan, including former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon. Pompeo and Bannon were among the 28 former Trump administration officials who were sanctioned by China in January after being accused of having "seriously violated China's sovereignty" and pushing the US government into a confrontation with the state.