Video footage showing U.S. and Taiwan special forces in joint training exercises has escalated tension across the Taiwan Strait in a move experts said was intended to send a clear challenge to Beijing.

The video footage, which has recently been circulating on social media, featured special forces personnel from the two sides involved in various kinds of training conducted in Taiwan, the island’s United Daily News reported. It has been the norm for joint military operations between the United States and Taiwan to be kept confidential, according to the newspaper.

The rare move by the U.S. to publicize the training drills appeared timed to match growing calls for greater military exchanges with Taiwan, said Chieh Chung, a Taiwan-based military analyst.


The 44-second long video was posted by the United States Army’s 1st Special Forces Group on Facebook a few months ago but resurfaced on social media recently, United Daily reported. It featured a training session codenamed “Balance Tamper” and involved the Operational Detachment Alpha team from the US Army Special Forces. The video also included a Black Hawk helicopter with rarely shown Taiwanese military insignia.

Promoting the video sends a message to Beijing amid rising tension between the two countries, said Su Tzu-yun, a senior analyst of the Institute for National Defense and Security Research. “It was to tell Beijing not to miscalculate the situation,” Su was quoted by United Daily as saying.

China’s Communist Party mouthpiece, Global Times, said the release of the video was a clear provocation and would only accelerate Taiwan’s eventual reunification with the mainland.

Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense confirmed the video had been taken during a regular military exchange between the two sides, adding that it respected the choice of the United States to publicize it.

Huang Jie-zheng, a professor from Tamkang University who specializes in international affairs, believes that the United States might have aimed at using the video to showcase its close relationships with Taiwan but it would also further damage trust between the two sides across the Taiwan Strait.

Click here for Chinese version.

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