
© AP Photo / Chiang Ying-ying
Last month, US media reported that small numbers of US Marines and special operations soldiers have been secretly training troops in Taiwan for at least a year, potentially in violation of agreements between Washington and Beijing. Taiwan's president later confirmed the deployment, prompting Chinese media to warn that the issue could spark a war.
The US has kept small numbers of troops deployed on Taiwan since at least 2008, internal Pentagon
data has revealed.
According to the military's personnel, workforce and publications files, which includes information on active duty service member strength, and military and civilian personnel operating in the United States and abroad, the US troop deployment on Taiwan goes back to the twilight of the George W. Bush administration.
A downloadable Excel file for September 30, 2008 lists three Navy and four Air Force personnel to have been stationed on Taiwan at the time.
Comment: Whilst a more than 50% increase in cases is indeed a damning sign of the times, surely if the police force was in a relatively healthy state the recruitment and deployment from other sectors would be manageable? However, it's likely that, as with other critical sectors, such as healthcare, the police force was already struggling due to years of mismanagement, and the disruption caused by the manufactured crisis, the diversion of resources to enforce lockdowns, along with this surge in cases, simply revealed the already present problems.
One also wonders whether this rise in cases is due to more, and more effective, investigations or whether, as has been documented on legal pornography sites, lockdowns, in part, led to these websites being visited more frequently.
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